Grampians Walks: A guidebook seeking to share a love of nature

Avid walkers Monica and Phil Coleman turned it into an opportunity to share their love of walking and nature, and have come out of it with a book; Grampians Walks, published in December.

"During all the lockdowns, we were out there, walking, recording everything and taking lots of photos," Ms Coleman said.

"We've lived up here for 15 years, but it turned out there were quite a few walks we hadn't done yet," Mr Coleman said.

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"We thought on the first day of lockdown that we'd go out and do some of those walks.

"People talk about them, but they don't know anything about them, so off we went... Some of the walks were just brilliant.

"Now we know the information, wouldn't it be nice to be able to tell people about it?"

As it turned out, the Grampians were fertile ground for such a guide; the last comprehensive guide had been published in 2004 and was in black and white.

And the Colemans were just the people for the job, having operated walking tours across Australia before settling near Halls Gap.

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The goal was to make the book accessible for everyone, from experienced walkers, to those just starting out.

"One thing we focused on was clearly describing how to get to the starts of some of the walks," Ms Coleman said.

The Peaks Trail has generated a lot of interest in the Grampians, according to Ms Coleman.

"It was one of our motivators, we've created an arrangement where you can do all of these as day walks and go home or to your night's accommodation or base camp," she said.

"You only have to pay to use the campsites... we want everyone to be able to do the walks, if they would like.

"We're particularly passionate about the locals being able to just walk the whole thing over a series, just go out on a Saturday, do a walk, tick it off in the book and move on to the next one."

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Over an eighteen month period, the couple set about categorising every inch of the national park.

Often they would send friends out on walks using their notes as a guide to see how well they fared.

"We got a lot of feedback to say 'it wasn't quite like that', or 'this actually how it was' and we'd go back and tweak it," Ms Coleman said.

The book includes tidbits on history, flora and fauna and other facts that could be of interest and liven a walk.

"We thought if we had little things like that, little blocks of information, it would help people develop more of an appreciation for the countryside," Mr Coleman said.

"We thought it was a neat idea for for families, because it gives kids something to get involved and read about during a walk," Ms Coleman added.

It also allowed the couple to share even more of their passions.

"Flowers are one of my passions, so in the book we've created a flower guide, with a brief description of them and when they flower."

Currently, the book can be found at retailers across the Grampians region at 20 outlets from Horsham to Moyston, as well as on the couple's website.

The Colemans said they're blown away with the support they've been shown.

"They're selling well... we haven't really come up for a breath yet," Mr Coleman said.

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