In the past year I have been on three ABW walks where leaving behind urine and faeces was not the right thing to do. However, if it wasn’t for Snow Week, the thought would not have even crossed my mind. Yet, despite the unpleasant subject, it’s becoming something that more of us need to consider.

Why? There are probably three environments where it is best to follow ‘Leave No Trace’ principles:

Editor’s note: this article was inspired by a conversation in the pub after an ABW meeting. The observation was made that first aid kits are a source of much worry and self-doubt. So the idea was born: why not ask our more qualified members what they carry!

Here are the results. The respondents are nurses, a doctor and a vet. Even among these, you will see a fair variation in what is taken. However, there is no doubt that all these ...

This is an extract from Living Off the Land – A Manual of Bushcraft, 1944, updated 1967 by H.A. (Bill) Lindsay, one of ABW’s founders. While some of the methods detailed here are far too destructive for everyday use, they may serve well in an emergency.

When the average civilised man, who knows nothing of the bush, finds himself stranded in scrub country, he is usually under a heavy handicap because he has what can be called ‘the water-tap outlook’. In ...

Katrina “Kat” Jensen passed away peacefully and on her own terms on 24 September 2025, after many years of living with Motor Neurone Disease.

Known to many Adelaide Bushwalkers (ABW) as Kat Vogt, she is fondly remembered for her brilliance, creativity, dark humour, infinite curiosity, and remarkable courage.

Brought up in Hawthorndene and educated at Blackwood High School, Flinders University and TAFE.

Her childhood was carefree roaming the local streets & bush lands. Her first degree was teaching (years R ...

Eleven Adelaide Bush Walking Club hikers, led by the amazing and well organised Jules, gathered at the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre. Boots were laced and packs loaded, ready to take on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail — a 66-kilometre journey through one of South Australia’s most beautiful landscapes. 

Before setting off, we met with a park ranger for a briefing that informed us about the campsites and the land we were about to traverse. The ranger spoke of the devastating 2019–2020 ...

Memoirs of a different approach to Edeowie and surrounds, May 2024

Saturday, 25 May 2024

We arrived in the Flinders the night before, settling into Brachina Hut on Edeowie Station. A modest little shelter tucked off a side track about 8 or 9 kms down Brachina Gorge Road. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t ask much of you, and in return, gives you peace, quiet, and a fine base for walking.

Come morning, we packed up and drove ...

This was going to be my worst night on a walk, and my hardest experience walking ever.

Earlier this year (in April) I undertook an 8-day loop walk starting from Round Mt carpark on Tooma Rd.

I was by myself, mainly arising from deciding quite late to do the walk. I had an ambitious plan that included most of Australia’s highest peaks. My first night (pictured above) was up Mt Jagungal, and then a couple of days enjoyable off-track walking across ‘The Rolling Ground’ ...

Club members will be aware of our water tank project in the northern Flinders Ranges.  It originated from Warren Bonython’s bequest of $10,000 to ABW after his death in 2012.  Warren was a longstanding patron of the club and the project was led by our then new Patron Duncan Chessell ably supported by the committee and members.  All of this is well documented in Tandanya and the Club Facebook page.  Tank locations are recorded on the club website here.  The tanks were installed in 2019 ...

With nearly two years of high school still ahead of me, and with a few long day walks in the Adelaide Hills to bolster my sketchy confidence, I bravely walked into a room somewhere behind the SA Museum. 

It was early 1965 and my purpose was to attend an ABW General Meeting. As I entered the room, I was immediately struck by how everyone was older than me, with a moderate spread of years either side of thirty or so it ...

Let’s make eating the highlight of the day!

Here is a list of over 50 tried and trusted recipes suitable for preparing on an overnight walk, with the food carried in the pack. No fresh meat, chicken or fish are included in recipes because of their vulnerability to contamination.

Quantities of ingredients in recipes are on the assumption that bushwalkers are usually hungry on a walk. Amounts may need to be varied depending on the nature of the trip or appetites of ...

Everyone knows protein is important on hikes. If you don’t factor enough in, your body may not adequately manage its wear and tear. The result is a gradual loss of strength and endurance instead of a gain in fitness. It isn’t a big deal for just a few days but the longer the trip, the more it matters.

The amount needed is up for debate, but it’s somewhere between 30 and 80g per day. But like so much in nutrition, we ...

It’s right in the middle of the peak South Australian walking season, so I’ll keep this brief. You’ve got trails to walk.

The headline article is the sort of thing we all want to see a LOT more of. That is, stuff by you, in your voice. I can’t tell you how much I love this article. Just read it and see for yourself.

Mike has then written an entertaining piece about the big pond at Wilpena. It’s so great to ...

So, I’m watching episode 7 of House on Netflix, fiddling with my laptop and staring at the ABW website walks page.

Packrafting in Tasmania. End of March this looks good. TREVOR oh no! That can’t be good.

Hit the View button, the red JOIN THIS ACTIVITY button is staring at me, voices in my head say no don’t do it, press it, no don’t do it, you know he’s crazy, don’t do it.

5:15 pm March 5th, 2025, and I’m stepping off flight ...

Wilpena Gap’s ‘Big Pond’ as I call it, sits in a peaceful setting just meters off the dirt road that takes you into the Pound from the tourist village, and this surely must be the most visited pond in the Flinders. It’s filled by water from Wilpena Spring which is situated in the Pound as close as the creek gets to the former Hills homestead and with probably a much larger contribution from underground flow.

Below the pond, ...

Look out there, what do you see?

I see a blaze of sun coated peaks surrounding this rocky mountain zenith,

A scarlet currency of outback and altitude that draws both climber and gaze,

And like the many climbers up here before me, I’m not disappointed atop Patawarta,

So I see the world as others do, mostly, logically, typically…

Look out there again … what do you see?

I see jagged summits guarding a distant plain, postcard soldiers beneath a blue Camelot sky,

I see an encircling ...

Patawarta Hill, an impressive landmark some ten miles north of Blinman, is a red sandstone peak, 3,306 feet high. It is at the south-western end of the pound-like formation which has Mt. Hack at its northern end, but unlike Mt. Hack, which appears simply as a bump on a ridge, it is a distinct peak rising well above its surroundings. A trip to Mt. Hack was described by Alison Beer in “Tarndanya”, 1967. [Mt Hack is the highest bump on ...

The Arthur Range in Tasmania sits at the pinnacle of Australian hiking experiences. Spectacular, unique landscapes line a trail that is both challenging and extremely fulfilling. It contains some of the hardest on-trail experiences in Australia.

So your question is: ‘I’ve done easier hikes, am I ready for South-West Tasmania?’ This guide aims to answer that question.

This is a region where many hikes don’t go according to plan. Mostly it’s for mundane reasons, but occasionally they become tragic ones*.