The Outdoor Trust is proud to be working in partnership with The Outdoor Guide to get more people active outdoors. By creating attractive and accessible new walkways near to where people live the Trust is connecting more people directly to some of the best outdoor experiences.

The Trust is responsible for one of the oldest and most popular walkways in Britain – The 22km Jubilee Walkway in London dedicated to Her Majesty The Queen’s Silver Jubilee. It took 17 years of negotiation to agree access along the south bank of The River Thames between Lambeth Bridge and Tower Bridge but The Queen’s Walk is now arguably one of the best places to walk in London.

In 2012 the Trust also created The Jubilee Greenway, a 60km route connecting up many of the venues used for The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The route was dedicated to The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and was opened by Her Majesty with a special marker outside Buckingham Palace. Both routes are enjoyed by more than 3 million people per year.

A new walkway is currently being created by the Trust in Windsor and will be ready to celebrate the moment Her Majesty potentially outreigns Queen Victoria as Britain’s longest reigning monarch on 9th September 2015. The 6.3km route connects 63 poiints of interest symbolically recognising Her 63 years as Queen.

The Trust has recently agreed with The Commonwelath Games Federation to create a network of Commonwealth Walkways as a permanent legacy of The Queen’s Baton Relay. The next Commonwelath Games will be hosted in 2018 by The City of The Gold Coast in Queensland Australia. In advance, The Queen’s Baton will visit all 71 nations and territories of The Commonwealth and the Trust will work with each place to leave a permanent Commonwelath Walkway for people to enjoy.

Message To TOG …

“We are delighted to be part of The Outdoor Guide family. Julia Bradbury is a patron of The Outdoor Trust and is generously supporting the promotion of our walkways as a great way to get to know the great outdoors.”

TOG Says …

“We’re thrilled to work with The Outdoor Trust alongside their popular Commonwealth walkways.”

Commonwealth Walkways Project

At 10am on Friday, 3 March 2017 in Kings Park, Her Excellency The Hon. Kerry Sanderson AC, Governor of Western Australia received the first marker to be installed in prospective new Commonwealth Walkways to be established in Perth and Fremantle.

Presenting the marker was international walks guru, television presenter and a Patron of the United Kingdom’s Outdoor Trust, Julia Bradbury, in Perth at the invitation of the TourismWA to feature in promotions which highlight the state’s special tourist regions and places.

Read more ...

The walkways will complement the Just Another Day in WA tourism campaign by encouraging visitors with limited time in the city to enjoy a walking and learning experience which focuses attention on our heritage and historical links, including Aboriginal heritage.

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, has given the Outdoor Trust permission for use of her personal cypher to assist in creating walkways throughout the Commonwealth. Each Aboriginal, heritage, historical or significant site chosen will be marked permanently with a large, in-ground bronze marker which displays the Queen’s personal EIIR Royal Cypher. The aim of the Outdoor Trust is to create 100 walkways across 71 Commonwealth countries bringing together 10,000 of the most significant highlights of the Commonwealth and to get people, especially young people less than 25 years, actively walking. The current number of completed walkways is around thirty across the Commonwealth of Nations.

‘Planning for Western Australia’s Commonwealth Walkways is well underway,’ said Hon. Barry House MLC, Chair of the Western Australian committee overseeing the project. ‘When the final route is endorsed by local authorities and The Palace it may include locations within the City of Perth, with some encompassing local Aboriginal stories and language; make linkages across the river to South Perth and guide, through the use of technology and maps, visitors and walkers to the entrance of Kings Park, where they can enjoy the many existing walking opportunities throughout Perth’s premier park which includes the Western Australian Botanic Gardens. It will also be possible to connect, for longer or subsequent walks, with those trails already established in the cities of Perth and Fremantle.’

The walkways will get added global exposure through their linking in perpetuity with the organisation for the Queen’s Baton Relay which precedes the Commonwealth Games in the city of Gold Coast where that city’s walkway has been completed. The Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) is a Games tradition that celebrates the Commonwealth’s diversity, inspires community pride and excites people about the world-class festival of sports and culture to come. The QBR is an important element in the lead up to the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) to be staged from 4-15 April 2018.

The Commonwealth Games Australia WA Division (CGAWA) is proud to be working with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) in the planning and delivery of the QBR in WA. CGAWA sits on the WA State Working Group for QBR, which has been regularly meeting for the past year to identify key engagement opportunities across WA for when the Queen’s Baton visits in 2018. Following the walkway event at 10am on Friday, 3 March 2017 in Kings Park, on Sunday 5 March the Australian Celebration Communities will be announced and the Community Batonbearer Nomination Program opens.

 For more information about the Queen’s Baton journey please go to https://www.gc2018.com/qbr#

An Interpretative Panel of the finalised route will later be installed at the beginning, or at a prominent place on the walkway and mobile telephone Applications, plus maps, will support updates of historical and heritage information at each site. The text of each Application will include information about the site and its origins and any connection with the Commonwealth as relevant. The National Trust of Western Australia is working with the Outdoor Trust UK to bring walkways to our state and has set up an Appeal which has already received funding from local philanthropy of over $50,000.

For further information contact:
Mr David Forster
Hon. Secretary
Commonwealth Walkways Western Australia Steering Committee
e: Trailswest2020@gmail.com
t: 04034 60332

50 Walkways

Fifty Commonwealth Walkways have now been mapped, marking exactly halfway to the 100 routes that we plan to create in partnership with communities and governments across all 71 Commonwealth nations and territories.

The Walkways aim to inspire an active and connected family of nations.

In parallel with the 388 day journey of The Queen’s Baton Relay 18 Walkways in Africa have now been drafted connecting 252 Points of Significance across the continent.

TOG Outdoor Trust Walks