If you’ve been bitten by the bug for long thru hikes, Australia is a great place to be. However, it doesn’t take too many years before you start running out of practical options. How many long-distance (over 14 day) Australian hiking trails are there?

The six below are the main ones you’ll keep hearing about. With the exception of the AAWT, each of these is within the reach of the average, fit hiker.

But what then? To this six, we could scrape up another three found on Wikipedia’s List of long-distance hiking tracks in Australia and add WA’s Munda Biddi Trail. What these four have in common is being multi-use trails designed more for horses or bikes.

These aren’t ideal, but they will still scratch that thru-hike itch. Although all four can still provide great walking, they spend a lot of time on unsealed roads and firetrails. Their very founding principles force them to avoid some of the best hiking terrain found in conservation areas.

So what if you still want more? There’s an answer that may even surpass some of the hikes you’ve already done.

Seven More Long Distance Hiking Trails

Around Australia, passionate individuals have designed at least another seven perfectly valid trails you’ve probably never heard of. These trails (or more correctly, routes) tend to be longer and more remote. In each case they come with a bigger, aspirational vision like crossing a state, a landscape feature or linking up cities.

They also come with bonus levels of built-in adventure. Following these bespoke, under-used trails gives the feeling that you’re part-hiker, part-explorer. But they don’t have to be especially hazardous – large parts of the Federation Tracks and NSW coastal trails stay reassuringly close to civilisation’s comforts. Certainly more than the AAWT does.

If you’re interested in these hikes, the best way to find out more is to visit their individual webpages. In most cases you can get GPX files, and for those you can’t, it’s probably only a matter of time.

The only one without a web presence yet is the Extended Heysen Trail. That’s because its route is still in development by us here at Adelaide Bushwalkers. We could be accused of enjoying the process just a little too much, but we also face an embarrassment of good route choices. We have also been working hard to space water tanks along the route where water is scarce. That’s one of ours pictured above.

To Thru Hike or Not To Thru Hike

But are you still wondering what the fuss is all about? Most people will be perfectly content with a two or three day wilderness escape. To them the idea of these walks must seem strange.

The first answer is that if you’re the right (or wrong?) hiker, thru hikes don’t just appeal to you, they are positively addictive. Partly it is the uncomplicated lifestyle, and partly it is the inner peace which for these people only the trail can provide.

The second answer is that there’s more than one way to do a long hike. Most people walk long multi-day trails one section at a time, not at any speed, and probably get a lot more out of them that way. Most of us have jobs and families, after all.

Greg Keaney, for example, the creator of the NSW coastal path, describes himself as a ‘saunterer’. We could all do with a little bit of that attitude as we explore this vast and fascinating land. The more options people like him give us, the less we’ll feel the need for crowded overseas trails when right here is really where we want to be.