Walking and bushwalking don t have to be synonymous, and no, Australians shouldn t feel they have to head out into the country to get a good walk in. Stay within city limits, and there are tremendous walking trails snaking around clifftops, taking in sculptures, linking together historic buildings or teetering along boardwalks through mangroves. These are 10 of the best…
Bondi to Coogee, Sydney
The stone-cold classic Australian urban walk snakes along the clifftops for 8 kilometres from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach in Sydney. It s as much about the beaches en route as it is the dramatic views, caves dug into the cliffs and multi-coloured sandstone. Stop for a bodysurf at Tamarama or Bronte, have a snorkel at Clovelly and take in a few wisps of melancholy while heading through the Waverley Cemetery.
Five brothers, including Ricky’s grandfather, served in the First World War.
Four of them backed up and served in the Second World War.
More than twenty family members have seen active service - service that’s woven its way from Pozieres, Passchendaele, and Amiens, to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, East Timor and Afghanistan - and with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force.
Ricky says “every medal tells a story” - whether it s worn over the heart of a veteran, or carried by one of their loved ones.
And that matters so much - especially today.
“Sometimes you feel alone… On days like today, you want to be with your mates”, says Ricky.
I wrote a Canberra Day post last year, which came out of my dismay at no longer enjoying the Sandgroper public holiday for my birthday now that I live in Canberra.
This year, we are celebrating Canberra Day on 8 March, which I realised is International Women’s Day – Votes for Women! – thus an excellent opportunity to reflect on the lives of two of the
many women involved in the creation of our federal capital: Lady Gertrude Mary Denman and Marion Mahony Griffin.
Lady Gertrude Mary Denman
I introduced you last year to the wonderful Lady Gertrude Mary Denman, the wife of Governor-General Lord Thomas Denman (1911-1914), who on 12 March 1913 – ‘Naming Day’, now known as Canberra Day – stood atop the newly completed base for a Federation column that was never realised and gave our new federal capital a name: ‘I name the capital of Australia, Canberra’.
Over 100 years after the Australian Government launched a competition for the design of a new capital, Marion Mahony Griffin wife of Walter and co-designer of Canberra as we know it is finally being recognised.
Pressure from Joe Biden's new green-leaning US administration and Australian states could see Canberra set a goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050, climate experts say.