1993: A Long-Distance Trail in Australia is Fully and Formally Inaugurated

April 4, 1993 

A long-distance walking trail in the Australian state of South Australia (SA) was officially opened in its entirety. Lynn Arnold (born in 1949), who was premier of SA from September 1992 to December 1993, presided at this event. The trail was named after artist Hans Heysen (1877-1968). The German-born Heysen spent most of his life in SA and earned widespread acclaim for his paintings of majestic Australian gum trees as well as various other key natural features of that part of the world.

One of the earliest and most prominent champions for developing what became the Heysen Trail was conservationist and longtime SA resident Warren Bonython (1916-2012), who began actively advocating for such a route as far back as the 1960s. The main designer of the Heysen Trail was Terry Lavender (1941-2004). In 1994, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for all of his efforts to make this trail a full-fledged reality.

The Heysen Trail covers approximately 711 miles (1,144.2 kilometers) between Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges (the largest mountain ranges in SA) and Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula. This trail ranks second only to the Bicentennial National Trail, which measures about 3,312 miles (5,330 kilometers) in length, as the longest hiking track in Australia.

Photo Credit: Jacqui Barker (https://www.flickr.com/people/82630990@N03) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

For more information on the Heysen Trail, please check out https://heysentrail.asn.au/trailwalker/article/the-heysen-trail-the-first-steps/

Additional information on long-distance hiking tracks in Australia is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-distance_hiking_tracks_in_Australia