In this entertaining 10-part series for SBS, TV presenter, radio host, actress, singer, writer and comedian Julia Zemiro conquers 10 epic walks, along the way meeting experts and locals, First Australians and new Australians who reveal surprising and inspiring stories about our multicultural country.
Each episode follows Julia as she embarks on an accessible and achievable one-day walk selected in collaboration with veteran walks expert and former SMH travel journalist Bruce Elder.
Julia’s step counter goes into overdrive as she hits the track on 10 of Australia’s greatest walks: up Mount Wellington high above Hobart in Tasmania; along the Main Yarra Trail to Melbourne; down the Mornington Peninsula, from Sorrento to Point Nepean; along the famous Goldfields Track in north-eastern Victoria; around Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin; down the NSW south coast following the Kiama Coast Walk; across the cliff tops in the Blue Mountains; up Waterfall Way and into Dorrigo National Park; from Byron Bay’s sun-kissed beaches to its famous lighthouse; and, finally, where Julia grew up – Bondi Beach and its world-famous coastal walk.
As Julia walks each route, she meets a variety of diverse people along the way, each revealing a story – some amazing, others heart-breaking, all of them intriguing: from those who have kept the fire burning at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra to those who maintain the oldest synagogue in Australia and those who are still looking to strike gold in the north-eastern Victoria.
Each episode is also enriched by nostalgic archival footage which breathes life into stories of yesteryear – be it images of Wonderland City, the amusement park that used to be the central feature of Tamarama Beach, footage of the environmentalists who fought off tree loggers in Bellingen Shire, or poignant photographs of the 400 Kosovar refugees who were housed at the quarantine station at Point Nepean.
While Julia sometimes briefly takes to other modes of transport – train, ferry, bicycle, boat – walking is the spine of the series, enabling Julia to feast on a bounty of incredible views and vistas from across the east coast of the country: from the rainforest to the coast, mountains to valleys, rural to urban, bush to bays.
All of the 10 walks are graded easy-moderate, and whilst the audience are armchair travellers on Great Australian Walks, we hope they’ll be inspired to follow in Julia’s footsteps.
Presented & narrated by Julia Zemiro, executive produced by Adam Kay, written & directed by Ili Baré & Daniel Whelanand series produced by Dan Goldberg
