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Green Walks

Green Walks is an initiative of Bushwalking Victoria that aims to increase walking participation in the community by getting more people to walk more often, in more places.

Green Walks in the Park Project

Green Walks in the Park is an initiative of the Heart Foundation and Bushwalking Victoria funded by Parks Victoria and Go for Your Life.

The Green Walks Program aims to get more people walking; connect people with their local parks and natural settings; build social and community connections, as well as provide physical and mental health benefits to participants. Bushwalking clubs will benefit from being involved in the project by encouraging more people to walk in the natural environment and hopefully join clubs.

Green Walks are to be held in parks located in targeted regions of Melbourne such as the outer West and South Eastern suburbs, inner Melbourne municipalities such as Maribyrnong or country Victoria such as Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, La Trobe Valley and Albury/Wodonga.

BWV is seeking volunteers from across Victoria to work with our project officer Erica Gurner to help develop and deliver this pilot project by becoming Green Walks Leaders and Assistant Leaders. These volunteers will assist with identifying walk locations, with the preparation of walk descriptions and the facilitation walks. Email Erica for more information.

Melbourne Green Walks

More information on Green Walks, including detailed walk guides for 10 green walks in metropolitan Melbourne is available on our dedicated web site at GreenWalksVictoria .

(The complete Guides are also on the Publications page)

Risk Management Guidelines - Updated Version July 2011

Bushwalking Victoria's Risk Management Guidelines for Clubs and the associated Acknowledgement of Risk forms for temporary members and members have been revised. The updated version of the guidelines is available on the Polices page and the forms on the Forms page.

Code of Conduct

For Bushwalking Victoria to continue to receive funding from Sport and Recreation Victoria (SRV) as a State Sporting Association, Bushwalking Victoria is required to have in place a Code of Conduct that all its member clubs must adopt.

The funding from SRV contributes to the payment of first aid subsidies to club members and to our administrative costs and contributes to reduced membership fees as a result.

Affiliate clubs were sent details of the Code in December 2010. The Code is also available using the following links:

Code of Conduct (PDF, 270k)
Letter to clubs (PDF, 76k)

Bushwalking Victoria at the Healthy Parks, People Congress

From 11-16 April 2010 Melbourne hosted the inaugural International Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress. Over five and half days, more than 1000 delegates from 38 countries attended, including David Reid, Catherine Guli, Tony Walker and Chris Towers from Bushwalking Victoria.

BWV presented the following two workshops at the Congress.

Healthy Participation - Going Further: (PDF, 3021kb) encouraging participation in our parks and bush lands, presented by our project officer Gina Mancuso, assisted by Catherine Guli. Go Further aims to increase bushwalking participation in the community by developing and implementing a plan to engage with local community walking groups to provide support and expertise and to encourage them to 'go further'.
Healthy Participation - The Role of Recreational Walking Advocacy Groups (PDF 276kb) in Development of a Healthy Park System, presented by Bushwalking Victoria’s strategy consultant, Tony Walker.

Beyond the Scroggin Eaters - a continuing history of Bushwalking Victoria

Beyond the Scroggin Eaters fills in the major highlights, achievements and activities of the 20 years since The Scroggin Eaters: A History of Bushwalking in Victoria, by Graeme Wheeler was published in 1989. Beyond the Scroggin Eaters is an 80 page book (A4 format) that will be a interesting and informative addition to any bushwalker's library. Use the following to order.

Order form for clubs (Word, 127kb)
Order form for individuals (Word, 125kb)

Where We Walked

WWW is a list of all the places and the distance walked by BWV members during the anniversary year. From 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2009 the walk location, distance walked and numbers that attended each walk (i.e. walks only, not bike rides, ski tours, canoe trips etc) is collected and collated. This isn't a competition to see which member or which club does the most walks or covers the most distance. The information will help provide some solid information on the use of our outdoor areas and enable BWV to better represent the interests of bushwalkers.

Totals

Number of clubs reporting 32
Number of walks 2,007
Number of walkers 26,159
Total distance walked 370,819

You can download summary of the walks (Pdf, 181k) that have been included in the above figures. The location of each walk will also eventually be plotted on a special Google map.

If you club hasn't reported in yet it isn't too late to start. For further information email Chris Towers.