The Bundian Way: ancient Aboriginal trail, future great Australian bushwalk
Australia’s highest point – Mount Kosciuszko – links to coastal NSW via a 365km track filled with scenic views and Aboriginal heritage. The man who has been walking the Bundian Way for more than a decade reveals its secrets, from Monica Tan of The Guardian:
The Bundian Way stretches runs for 350 kilometres, from the Snowy Mountains to the sea. In 2012 it was given NSW heritage recognition—the culmination of more than a decade’s work by the Eden Aboriginal Land Council. Local bushwalker and author John Blay has been fascinated by the Bundian Way for years. He was encouraged by local elders to walk the track. He did so himself, uncovering stories as he went, before organising a larger survey group, including Indigenous sculptor Darren Mongta:
“His epic journey of rediscovery, chronicled in On Track: Searching Out the Bundian Way (NewSouth, 2015), is much more than a bushwalking narrative; it’s a spiritual odyssey in which Blay uncovers the long lost history associated with this significant track. It also highlights the trials and tribulations of long-distance walking … However, it’s Blay’s delightfully detailed descriptions of the varying country through which he travels, unmatched by anything else I’ve read about this region, that makes On Track a must-read for any lover of the Australian bush, bushwalker or not,” says Tim the Yowie Man in The Canberra Times:Inspired by the stories he heard from the Aboriginal elders of south east NSW, John Blay searched for and found a 360 kilometre ancient Aboriginal pathway from Mt Kosciuszko to the coast. In his newly released book, On Track, he tells the story of his epic walks from the highest point of Australia to Twofold Bay near Eden:
Naturalist, poet and seasoned bushwalker John Blay worked for over a decade to uncover the Bundian Way, a 380-kilometre ancient pathway from Mount Kosciuszko to the New South Wales far south coast, used by both the Aboriginal people of the area and the earliest British arrivals. But what is it about the Bundian Way that makes it less like a walk and more like a pilgrimage?