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Walks book to be reprinted

A book produced locally about "Hawkesbury to Hunter Coastal Walking" will be reprinted this month.

The initial run of 1000 was printed in 2000 with the assistance of the Killcare Wagstaffe Trust and a Gosford Council cultural grant.

Another 1000 copies will be printed this month.

The publication contains 11 colour maps with a description for each.

It was written by Jeanette Blomfield with computer cartography by John Martyn.

The text gives walkers detail on each section with directions designed to ensure their safe arrival at their destination.

The book also includes some colour photographs, information on transport and accommodation and other useful information about the area.

The Hawkesbury to Hunter Coastal walks started in 1876 with a quarter mile strip of coastal land from Port Stephen's to Jervis Bay, which was reserved for coal and recreation.

Since then much of the strip has been whittled away by urban development.

In 1928, Marie Byles spearheaded a campaign which culminated in 1934 in the establishment of Bouddi Natural Park, now Bouddi National Park.

In the decades since then, individuals and conservation groups have fought hard for more of the coastal land to be protected, with the result that there are now seven parks to the north, Brisbane Water National Park, Bouddi National Park, Wamberal Klagoon Nature Reserve, Wyrrabalong National Park, Munmorah State Recreation Area, Awabakal Nature Reserve and Glenrock State Recreation Area, now under the care, control and management of the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS).

By using existing tracks and linking them together by beach and minimal urban walking, it has been possible to devise a magnificent walking route of some 150km between Patonga and Newcastle.

In an article, "Bouddi National Park" published in 1977, Marie Byles wrote: "The originator of Bouddi National Park was the telescope through which we children in the teens of this century looked from the verandah of our Palm Beach cottage across the wide Hawkesbury estuary to rusting boilers of the good ship Maitland wrecked on Bouddi headland in 1898".

In 1922, she persuaded three girl friends to accompany her on an exploratory camping trip to what became Maitland Bay in Bouddi National Park.

So impressed was she by this beautiful beach and bushland that she set about conserving it.

Marie Byles joined the Sydney Bush Walkers in 1929, and, when in 1933 the NSW Federation of Bush Walking Clubs was formed, she set about enthusing the organisation into adopting the concept of conserving this scenic coastline as a park.

In 1935, 260 hectares were declared as a park, originally called Bouddi Natural Park.

Bouddi has been considerably enlarged since its beginnings.

But Marie Byles was the pioneer who saw the need to protect this area, and fought hard for it.

It was her initiating influence which created the first of the chain of national parks, nature reserves and state recreation areas stretching along the coast from Patonga to Newcastle.

Several only came to fruition in the 1980s and 1990s after many years of hard lobbying.

Marie Byles died on November 21, 1979, but her dream of maintaining the coastline in its natural state lives on.

The book's author, Jeanette Blomfield, is a conservationist and bushwalker and has walked extensively in the region.

She established the Central Coast Branch of National Parks Association (NPA) of NSW and a local bush walking group, Weekday Walkers (Central Coast).

She is a contributor to Bushwalkers in the Sydney Region Vols 1 and 2, published by NPA, and author of Bouddi Walks for Killcare Wagstaffe Trust.

Computer cartographer, John Martyn, is an environmentalist and a geologist.

He has provided clear, accurate and attractive computer maps from draft maps, and delightful illustrations of the coastal Crested Tern.

He is the author of A Field Guild to the Bushland of the Upper Lane Cove Valley, published by STEP Inc.

Cec Bucello, October 1