Pittwater Online News

Welcome today to the beginning of the Inaugural Sydney Harbour & Coast Walk. The walkers are very keen to get out and walk in the rain, there’s nothing like walking in the rain, it is fantastic as long as you have some decent wet weather gear on. My name is Phil Jenkyn, I’m one of the walkers and Chair of the Inaugural Sydney Harbour & Coast Walk Steering Committee.

I’d like to introduce the Mayor of Pittwater, Councillor Jacqui Townsend. 

Thank you Phil. Welcome everyone, welcome to Pittwater. 

Firstly I’d like to acknowledge that Pittwater Council acknowledges and respects  the traditional owners of this land on which we stand today.

I’d also like to officially welcome Governor Phillip to Pittwater.

Here we are at the official start of the Inaugural Sydney Harbour & Coast Walk. Phil and his team are to be congratulated for bringing to the attention of all this beautiful coastal walk and the fact that it actually starts here at Barrenjoey Head, which is an amazing start to any visit to Sydney.

I’d like to welcome Rob Stokes, our local member and NSW Minister for the Environment, who is going to walk, regardless of the weather. I’d also like to welcome the hardy and energetic walkers who have taken on this fantastic trip for 30 days.

I heard Phil speaking to Mr Marney on 702 radio (ABC) this morning and explaining how there will be a holiday aspect to this walk with many stopovers and rest days along the way.

I’d also like to thank Mr. Illingsworth for taking on the job of accompanying the walkers throughout the 30 days – we will all benefit from his beautiful photography of this walk; that is something we will be able to keep and look back at for many years to come.

Walking south from here you will of course see some beautiful scenery, some beautiful native fauna and flora and maybe even a few migrating whales. On the leg from Barrenjoey to Avalon I’ve been assured that will be some honeyeaters, fairy wrens hopping in and out of the shrubs and perhaps even a peregrine falcon or white bellied sea eagle.

The 315 kilometre route south is a magnificent treasure to be valued and preserved into the future so that all may enjoy along this route.

One thing Phil said this morning to Mr. Marney is that highlighting this coastal walk is allowing people to walk out their back door and take a stroll and be active within the community. This is something we all need to do more of and hopefully this walk will inspire others to access these beautiful areas via these paths.

I’d now like to hand over to Minister Stokes to say a few words.

Thank you Your Worship.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it’s wonderful to be here with the Mayor of Pittwater to officially launch this amazing walk, this incredible adventure, and I as well offer my best wishes to the intrepid paedians who are about to embark an extraordinary adventure through an amazing landscape.

What is so exciting about this endeavour is that it is as much cultural as it is environmental in focus.  What these walkers are doing is exploding this culture that has infiltrated western society that we are not conscious of the places we inhabit; in living in a life based solely on acquisition we fail to see the beautiful places we live amongst and the wonderful people we live among.

What this walk is doing in this sense is quite extraordinary and hopefully revolutionary in making us appreciate and be conscious of the amazing environment in which we live, the amazing communities that comprise Sydney and its environs and the amazing people that we can meet along the way.

So much of great literature is about great journeys and about the relationships and experiences that are forged along the way, so no doubt we will see a few seminal novels come out of this journey. 

(Attendees laugh)

Quite honestly I cannot stress more strongly how important what you are doing is important culturally as it is important that we as a community do actually stop and smell the roses, that we be conscious of the people we meet, the environments and landscapes we pass and the landscapes we inhabit. These, ultimately, are much more about the tapestry of life then what we happen to acquire on the way through or what positions we happen to achieve. Those things are transitory; what remains are the relationships that we forge on the way through and our appreciation of this incredible environment. 

So you, the walkers, are almost like prophets telling the communities as you are passing about the importance of getting out, of enjoying our landscape, enjoying our communities, and being part of these, being conscious of these. 

One of my favourite sayings is from John of Sailsbury who once said; ‘Who is more contemptible than he who scorns a knowledge of himself? ’ and this indicates that in these sorts of experiences there is self-discovery as much as discovering the places along the route. 

I’d like to conclude by thanking everyone that has been involved in this walk and its organisation; I’d like to acknowledge and thank the many staff of OEH, the Office of Environment and Heritage who are here today; thank you for your work and support for our communities. We have some very exciting things coming up in terms of the Walk21 Conference and the IUCN World Parks Convention later this year. This event is helping to shine a spotlight on these major events coming to Sydney. This is a wonderful way to celebrate this incredible environment that we’re privileged to share together.

I would, along with the Mayor, like to offer my best wishes to all the workers and to Phil Jenkyn who has led this movement in Australia. I hope to see many more walks opened up – we certainly have many more opportunities for walks in this country, disused rail lines being one example; I’m very keen to see how we can facilitate those being provided so communities have more places where they can relate to each other and enjoy this special continent that we share together.

Thank you.

I’d like to thank you Minister and Mayor for the words that you have said both in relation to the walk but also regarding the purpose of it and who we meet and what we see along the way. I’d also like to present both of you with a special badge we have to commemorate the walk, as both of you are inaugural walkers today and we’re very pleased to have you with us. We also have for each of you a full set of the guides for the legs of these walks that have been signed by the walkers.

Presenting the badges.

I’d like to ask the inaugural walkers to join us so you may see how young and fit they are. This is Bill Avery, who in his spare time over the last 20 years has forged a link between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The walkers are Leigh Shearer-Heriot, Ian Napier, Bill Avery, David Eager, Charles Pitsillidi and Matt McClelland.

I’d also like to present to Peter McKew with these as well. Peter is Executive Officer of the Premiers Council for Active Living and the Chair of Walk21, which to us is important as Walk21 has the potential to take walking to a new level and give every community a legacy akin to why we are doing this walk, to raise the profile of walking and all the benefits that stem from it.

I’d like to thank Graham Howard (President of North Palm Beach SLSC) and the North Palm Beach Surf Club for having us here today. This is the best known surf club in the world – known overseas and in 100 countries around the world as The Summer Bay Surf Club. They have just completed wonderful renovations and have been very welcoming to us today.

One of the aims for this walk is not only promote the Walk 21 Conference and the IUCN World Parks Convention but also to really encourage people to walk this route. We don’t expect everyone to walk for 24 days and 30 overall but it will become a Rite of Passage to many people, I have no doubt about that. 

We do however encourage people to walk for 30 minutes or an hour or two hours; to get out of their houses and drip down on to this foreshore track, and then try a different section, and then be bold enough to take a weekend off and stay in one of the lovely places along the way.

For all those who want to follow where we will be the itinerary of available on the website of www.walkingcoastalsydney.com.au and the Sydway app. I will say this; we will always be on time at the start of each day and there’s a good chance that we’ll be at the lunch spot on the itinerary – the other timings may be a bit fudgy depending on how we are going along the way. The Sydwya App can be used by everyone on any of these walks.

I would also like to thank the partners, sponsors and supporters – the list of Councils, and various bodies who have come on board indicate a good future for these walks and the areas they pass through.

What we are walking on is 40 thousand years plus of history – we are walking on Aboriginal Tracks that have been passageways for thousands of years before the white man ever came here. What we want to emphasise as the inaugural walkers is that we are walking for our WHOLE history and culture of 40 thousand years +.  

Part of this is of course colonial. I have noticed that today, somehow, Governor Phillip has come back after two hundred years to visit a place where his life and person are celebrated, here in Governor Phillip Park. 

And so I’d like to ask him ‘why have you returned today Governor Phillip?’

My Lords and Ladies and others who perhaps may not be Lords and Ladies, but whose ancestors I may have met some time ago –

Why have I come back today? 

It is important for me to visit special places – this happens to be one of those special places, and it is special because of the strong bond and friendship I made with the Aboriginal people at that time. There were very few wqhite people in these areas, in fact there were none – however I was very impressed by the Aboriginal peoples of these lands; slender of body, quick of mind, and very open and wiling to show us the way.

We spoke of the various aboriginal tracks and we in fact engaged in using those tracks to find our way to this very location. I actually made three trips to this area in my time. The first was by boat and had I ventured for another day or two I would have declared The Pittwater and Brisbane Waters as the site for the settlement; it is actually a better waterway then in Sydney Cove or Port Jackson. However, I did not find enough fresh water.

On another journey of course, I found the Hawkesbury, and had I travelled the distance at that time, that is where I would have made the settlement. So this place is important for those reasons.

I also wish to thank those who have honoured my name and my person by naming this park The Governor Phillip Park, in fact, I feel quite humbled. My job was to start the colony; I didn’t come for statues or memorial parks. We had a mission and my vision for this great nation is enhanced today by this gathering. This is what I believed would happen in this great colony, that we would have free people enjoying an environment that is unrivalled anywhere in the world.

These are just some of the reasons that I have ventured here today. In my comings and goings I have made a great bond of friendship with Mr. Jenkyn and so would like to thank him on behalf of all of you and all of the citizens of this great city for the work that he has done in putting these paths and tracks together.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Governor – I have to say that the paths and tracks have been put together by many many people and represent a wonderful relationship between Councils, Government and a city all pulling together to create an irresistible force.