Potential problems with Joint Walks

From: Brett Davis To: info@shoalhavenbushwalkers.com Subject: Potential problems with Joint Walks Date sent: April 6, 2025

Hi SBW committee, I have had concerns about joint walks with other clubs since participating in one on Beecroft Peninsula a couple of years ago when most of the walkers from the other club had tiny little backpacks that could not possibly have held the stuff required to be taken on a walk by Shoalhaven Bushwalkers. This was particularly evident when it became obvious that some of the other walkers did not have morning tea or lunch with them. Different clubs have different rules, and those rules are not always compatible. I will use the Illawarra Ramblers as "the other club" in the following examples. As far as I can tell from their website, Illawarra Ramblers don't allow children on their walks. Our club has a rule that says "Adult participants in the activity are expected to be positive role models in the presence of the child" but Illawarra Ramblers don't have this restriction placed upon them. I know this is a fairly frivolous observation, but it does show that clubs treat different matters differently. A potentially more serious example involves PLBs. SBW leaders must carry a PLB on walks going to areas that don't have mobile phone reception, whereas in one part of their website it says that Illawarra Ramblers leaders are required to carry PLBs to "remote or rugged areas", while another part says PLBs are only required in "remote areas". I could not find where Illawarra Ramblers define what "remote or rugged areas" actually are, so who knows when an Illawarra Ramblers leader would carry a PLB. If an Illawarra Ramblers leader considers an area is not too remote or not too rugged, then they might not carry a PLB to the area even if it has no mobile phone coverage. Another example of potential problems involves the number of people on the walk. Illawarra Ramblers require a minimum of FOUR participants on walks that are Grade 4 and above, while Shoalhaven Bushwalkers only requires THREE participants, so if a joint walk has only three participants, what is the legal situation of Illawarra Ramblers on the walk should one of them be injured? Additionally, Illawarra Ramblers are apparently allowed to leave a walk before it ends as long as they advise the leader - this can be found on their "Grading and Guidelines" page at https://www.illawarraramblers.com.au/grading-and-guidelines/ under "On the activity", so on a walk with only THREE participants, what happens when an Illawarra Ramblers tells the leader during the walk that they will be leaving the walk at lunchtime, at which time there will only be TWO people on the walk and it is no longer an official club walk for either club? To prevent these conflicts from happening, I suggest that any joint walks listed on the SBW walks program in the future should specify which club's rules are to be followed on that walk. Using the Illawarra Ramblers as an example, our program should say whether a walk is a Shoalhaven Bushwalkers walk or an Illawarra Ramblers walk. Unfortunately, while our walks grading system, walker responsibilities and first aid kit recommendations are listed in the publicly accessible part of our website, all of our safety information is hidden to Illawarra Ramblers in the members only section of our website, so if a walk is specified as a Shoalhaven Bushwalkers walk, Illawarra Ramblers will have no idea what safety requirements they should follow ... We could move our safety procedures into the public area of our website, but the numbers problem would still remain. Or the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee and the Illawarra Ramblers committee could get together to develop identical gradings, guidelines and procedures - but this would be monumentally time-consuming and certainly not worth the effort. In addition, the Illawarra Ramblers club isn't the only club that could participate in joint walks with Shoalhaven Bushwalkers, so unless ALL clubs in NSW have exactly the same rules, the conflicting requirements of different clubs will always be a problem. I suggest that the safest and simplest way to avoid all these problems is to ban joint walks altogether. Regards, Brett TOP

Many club members would be unaware of most of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee decisions during the time described in this history. This page shows one of the 35 suggestions to improve the club and its procedures sent by the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers webmaster to the SBW committee in 2025. The Shoalhaven Bushwalkers webmaster would have his membership cancelled for sending in these suggestions, although the real reason was probably because of two disputes he raised with the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee which they seemingly did not want to deal with. The cancellation of the webmaster's membership was arguably illegal under NSW law and could lead to the club being taken to court.