 Suggestion re minimum numbers on a walk |
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From: Brett Davis To: info@shoalhavenbushwalkers.com Subject: Suggestion re minimum numbers on a walk Date sent: Feb 15, 2025 |
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Hi SBW, Greg Smith's news item of 23rd September 2024 states that a reduction in the minimum number of people on a walk from four to three "goes along with the current best practice in the Bushwalking fraternity". What "bushwalking fraternity" is Greg referring to? Bushwalking Australia does not mention minimum numbers on its website, but at the top of its "Technical and Safety Advice" page it provides a link to a "Bushwalking Manual - Online" which is published by Bushwalking Victoria. That manual has a page called "Forming a Group" which recommends four people on a walk as it states that having three people on a walk has the disadvantage of "limited capacity dealing with an illness, injury or emergency". HikeWest - the peak body for hiking in WA - produced "Activity Risk Management Guidelines” in 2023, one of which states that "a generally accepted minimum is four people". The peak body for bushwalking in South Australia is WalkingSA. They say "when bushwalking with friends, it is recommended that on day walks there should be at least 2 of you and on overnight journeys, at least 4. With 4, if one person gets injured, one can stay with them, and 2 can go for help." It appears that WalkingSA recommends four people for "overnight journeys" because they don't think that injuries happen on a day walk (making them almost as stupid as Bushwalking NSW). I could find no recommended group size on the Bushwalking Queensland website. Bushwalking Tasmania does not appear to have a website and suggests contacting one of their nine bushwalking clubs for information, but one of their largest clubs - the Launceston Walking Club website - links to the Victorian Bushwalking manual mentioned above which recommends four people on a walk. There is no peak body for bushwalking in the Northern Territory, but there are two large bushwalking clubs. The Darwin Bushwalking Club has a "Handbook for Leaders" which states "For a walk to be club sanctioned, it must have a minimum of 3 (but preferably at least 4) walkers. So, looking at Australia as a whole, it would appear that the "Bushwalking fraternity" actually sees the "best practice" as having four people on a walk. Looking at NSW and the ACT, however, we find that many clubs - including Shoalhaven Bushwalkers - have their safety procedures only available to their members, which makes it impossible to judge what the NSW "bushwalking fraternity" considers best practice. The Brindabella Bushwalking Club actually shares its safety procedures with the public - as Shoalhaven Bushwalkers once did - and its website states "The minimum number of people on a BBC walk is four. If fewer than four people are available for a walk, the walk cannot proceed as an official Club activity". Bushwalking NSW recommends bushwalking with a minimum of three people - but it is only a recommendation and they don't go so far as to call it "best practice". The advice on the Bushwalking NSW website appears under the heading of "Never walk alone" and the full quote is "Bushwalking NSW recommends bushwalking with a minimum of three people. If someone is injured one person can stay with the injured walker while the other finds help." This would mean the one finding help is walking alone - which contradicts their "never walk alone" policy ... In the past, the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee was well aware of the Bushwalking NSW recommendation of three people on a walk, but chose to ignore it. Rather than just "going along" with the recommendation, the committee actually made its own judgement on what it considered safe or not, and so kept the minimum number to four. In light of the all the above information, I would like to suggest the SBW committee reconsider its September 2024 decision to change the minimum number of people required on a walk to three, and change it back to four as it has been since the club's inception. Regards, Brett |
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