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*.

I first found reference to this in the Australian Emergency Plus app (a very useful app to have on you phone for emergencies) and saw it used in the UK by the driver of a broken-down car to give his location. 

what3words is an app that has partitioned the earth into 3-metre-square areas and given each square a unique three-word ID. For instance “strike.eggs.sake” is the front door of the ABW meeting hall.

As can be seen from the above, when entering an ID, the ...

Are you interested in hiking the Larapinta? Hopefully after reading you’ll have a better idea if it’s for you, and what preparation you’ll need. Then you might like to take a look at our 17-day itinerary.

This article is designed as a quick summary of the important points. Additional resources include the excellent official trail site and Chapman’s guide to walking the Larapinta Trail. While all effort has been made to ensure accuracy, please do not rely on this information alone.

Five of us recently walked the entire 223km Larapinta Trail route west to east, including a highly recommended side trip. We took these notes along the way.

Why west to east? To all of us it felt more significant to finish in Alice Springs. That and it was less hassle not having to coordinate with a transport company*. A lot of ink has been spilled about walking east to west so the sun isn’t in your eyes. It wasn’t in ours ...

The creature challenge for readers this month is to identify the moth or butterfly in Ann’s excellent photo from the Gammon Ranges. For the moment, it could be either a butterfly OR moth – see below!

Butterflies and moths differ in their wings, antennae, body shape, activity patterns, and how they transform from larva to adult. 

The following is a brief account of a walk in 1992 round the perimeter ridge of Wilpena Pound completed by Steve Weir and Graham Dingley with Jan Dingley supplying back up support.

Anyone visiting Wilpena Pound can’t help noticing the broken ridge running all the way from Pompey Pillar to St. Mary’s Peak – that’s what makes it the ‘Pound’. It’s such an obvious feature that the idea of walking round the ridge probably jumps to most walker’s minds when they ...

What an epic:

‘The Aussie 10’ is a hike I’ve been planning for years: to summit the highest 10 peaks in Australia; but the timing to do this has been continuously thwarted. These mountains are all conveniently located within the Kosciuszko National Park, NSW. Also though, there are very interesting mountains in vicinity of the Aussie 10 – all about or above 2,100m, so my list of summits to ...

Members will no doubt be saddened by the widespread recent burn in Gariwerd / The Grampians. What started as two fires in late 2024 had by January 2025 merged into an enormous area in the central Grampians.

The map shows the final extent of the fires. Thanks to heroic efforts of firefighters, there was only minor damage to structures, but the toll on the bush and its wildlife was unavoidable. Special efforts have been made to ...

Whether we know it or not, ABW members owe a large debt to Peter Beer, who passed away in the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Sunday 22/9/2024. On joining in 1959, he and a handful of energetic, young members found a club entering its adolescence after foundation in 1946. It could not have been in safer hands.

Peter was one of those people who put their best into everything they do. He was a frequent and popular walk leader, and intrepid explorer of ...

The following article was written by Peter Beer in 1963. Much of what he wrote then is just as relevant and useful today. The things that have changed are interesting enough that I’ve added them as footnotes below. Ed.

The Pound is a large basin, some ten miles by four miles, drained only by Wilpena Creek, which is permanent near the Chalet[1]. The rock on the summits of the peaks is red quartzite and is underlain by purple slates in the ...

We packed our essentials into duffel bags and a day pack and were transported to Kathmandu airport after breakfast. After a 6 hour wait we were suddenly moving. There was a break in the weather and we needed to go immediately.

The flight to Lukla airport was 45 minutes but felt nothing like it. Upon seeing the welcome sign and airstrip, I felt the realisation of a dream was possible. So much needs to go right still but we are here, ...

Last month seven ABW members went on Nigel’s navigation weekend to the Hattah Lakes. We all came with map and compass at the ready and GPS devices nowhere to be seen. Here’s what we found:

So here’s what we learnt. Firstly, though, why learn this skill anyway?

Our ABW hearts had been collectively melting in anticipation of the 2024 Flinders Spectacular, and once again our objective was Mambray Creek’s Hidden George, the pantheon of rocky edifice pilgrimage.  For which Sammi Lanyon had dusted off her walk-leading Scepter and morphed we trekking minions into a yowl of bush bustling cavaliers.              

And whilst Sammi’s past Flinders Spectaculars had been four days long, this year’s Spectacular was down to just three, owing to some governmental campsite admin hick-ups,  therefore the itinerary was as follows:

Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby in good season

The Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus is Australia’s prettiest macropod and largest rock wallaby. We’re incredibly lucky to live close to the stronghold of this arid zone specialist in the Flinders Ranges. Here, they are known as andu by the Adnyamathanha people.

Who can forget the sudden and unexpected joy of disturbing a pair in a gorge, to watch them seem to float over the boulders as they make their effortless escape.