Outdoor Industry Connect & Share Forums
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How A National Walking Challenge Funds Nature Protection
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A national walking challenge sounds simple until you hear what it can unlock for nature. We’re joined live by Denise Zlotowski from the Australian Conservation Foundation to share the thinking behind Australia’s Biggest Bushwalk, the results so far, and the plan to take it truly nationwide. If you’ve ever wanted an easy way to turn your regular bushwalks into something bigger, this conversation lays out the practical steps, the fundraising support, and the real-world conservation work those dollars back.
We talk through what makes ACF distinct as Australia’s national environment organisation, and why it treats climate and nature as one connected fight. Denise explains how funds raised support protection for threatened animals and habitats, efforts to stop deforestation and expose environmental wrongdoing, and stronger climate and nature policy advocacy. We also dig into what participants get along the way: a simple signup process for individuals or teams, an online platform packed with posters and social tiles, community momentum through a fundraiser network, and partner support including Paddy Pallin plus a Vamos e-bike prize valued at $5,000.
Then we shift into a rapid roundup for the outdoor industry in NSW and the ACT: skills and inclusion updates from the Skills IQ forum, what’s behind low training completions, a clear reminder on Australian privacy law thresholds via the OAIC, and practical member resources like the outdoor industry employment guide. We also flag time-sensitive opportunities across sun safety promotions, trainee subsidies, tour guiding reviews, industry awards, masterclasses, and education events. Finally, we address the pressure of fuel shortages and why sharing on-the-ground impacts helps ensure the outdoor sector is not left out of policy decisions.
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Welcome to the Outdoors New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum. Where ideas thrive, collaborations spark, and our industry comes together to grow. Let's connect, share, and make an impact. This episode is recorded live with our professional outdoor friends and provided post-event as a resource for the outdoor industry.
SPEAKER_03Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for episode eight of season four of Connect and Share with Outdoors New South Wales and ACT. So today I'd love to acknowledge the traditional owners and the lands of which we all come from today. I'm coming to you from Darrow Country in North West Sydney. Here we say worry me when we welcome. So worry me, everyone, and we will get stuck into uh today's news. But we're going to kick off with the Australia's biggest bushwalk. Denise is here to talk to us all about this. So I'm going to hand over to her first, and she's going to give us a bit of an insight into what this is all about. We're a bit excited to hear what you have to tell us, Denise. So over to you.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful, Laurie. I do have um some slides prepared, so would it be possible to share my screen as well?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I'll give you that right, right now. And you should be able to take over from me. Can you do that?
SPEAKER_02Not yet. Would it be helpful if I leave quickly and come back? I know you're recording, so Yeah, that's fine.
SPEAKER_03You can certainly do that through. Yeah. Or if you wanted to just email the presentation across as you do a bit of an intro, I can throw it up on screen for you.
SPEAKER_02That sounds good. Why don't we just do that? Um one second.
SPEAKER_03So how much snow did they get on Perish? Do we know Zach?
SPEAKER_05It's dumping down right now. Um just in Valhalla. Oh my lord, you're right there now.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I just thought we're just waiting to get the troopie back to to main road and then we'll head back down to Jinderby. But it's just come through really wildly and whipping through right now.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, pretty freaky at this time of year to be experiencing it. Beautiful, of course.
SPEAKER_08I haven't seen anything from there.
SPEAKER_04There you go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've got a bunch of clients arriving this afternoon. I might have to shuttle them up from Sulpic Creek.
SPEAKER_03Of course, I didn't even think even they can't get on the road.
SPEAKER_01I don't think they clear the road much to this time of the year during the week. So um, anyway, hopefully it won't stay around for too long.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Awesome. I think we're ready to go. So over to you, Denise.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I can't see. You've just had the slides up, but I I can't see them anymore on screen.
SPEAKER_03Oh, what are we looking at? We're looking at the outdoor council, are we? Okay, let's stop that one and we'll do it again. It's great to have technology on a Friday morning. There we go.
Introducing Australia’s Biggest Bushwalk
SPEAKER_02No problem. And I might always have to just um yeah, let you know when to jump to the next slide. Um so hello everyone. Um, so wonderful to be here this morning. Um, I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we're all um dialing in from today. I'm joining you from DY in Sydney on Gayamagel Country. And I pay my respects to elders, past and present, and any First Nations people on the call today. I'd also like to recognize that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land. Um and yeah, I invite you to share the lens on which you're all dialing on today in the chat. Um, I don't know if that's something you normally do, but that's what we do at ACF.
SPEAKER_04Wonderful.
What ACF Does And Why
Partners, Prizes, And Fundraiser Support
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, so wonderful to be here this morning and talk about Australia's biggest bushwalking initiative by the Australian Conservation Foundation. Um, I might just give you a little intro to myself, so let's jump to the next slide. Um quick back. There we go. Thank you, Laurie. Um, so I'm Denise Slotowski. I head up the strategic and digital fundraising team at the Australian Conservation Foundation. I um have held um various senior um roles in the NFP sector, um, including leading digital transformation for the Australian Conservation Foundation. I previously worked for Starlet Children's Foundation as well, where um I launched um Super Swim, a national swim um challenge that's um award-winning and raising over five million dollars um every year. Um and I also sit on the board of uh Surf Aid Umternational Development Um Organisation and Living Ocean and Marine Conservation Organisation. Let's jump to the next slide, please. I haven't done this in this format for a while. Um I'm I'm sure most of you are familiar with ACF, but if you are not, um I'll just do a little recap. So ACF is Australia's National Environment Organization. We were created in 1965, and we influence governments, businesses, and communities to protect Australia's wildlife, forests, rivers, reefs. Um, and um, we're independent, uh, nonpartisan. We hold decision makers to account and uh base all of our actions on evidence to ensure that nature and people can thrive for generations to come. We're powered by over 500,000 supporters, so we're quite a large organization. Uh many of them are in regional Australia and we're primarily funded by donations. Uh, we don't receive any government support. And um if you jump to the next slide, this is one of my favorites, it's just a little bit of a statement. Um uh we actually celebrated our 60th anniversary last year. Um, so we're going strong and we won't stop until Australia's nature is protected and restored because nature needs us now. And the next slide, please. Yeah, so I'm here today to talk about Australia's bushwalk, which uh Australia's biggest bushwalk, which is an initiative by the Australian Conservation Foundation. It was first launched three years ago. Um, it's an event that um we have been um wanting to grow for a while, but this year we have made a, as an organization, made a really big commitment to um invest in um in this event and um really take it national um and um are really hopeful that a lot more people are participating this year. We are asking people to be a hero for nature and join us um uh with thousands of others across the country to participate in the biggest bushwalk, um, sign up online and uh raise funds to help protect the wild places and wildlife that we all love. Jump to the next slide, please. And over the uh course of the last two years, we already have raised$300,000. Um, so quite a huge achievement. This year, our target is actually$300,000. So we're aiming to do that within one year again um uh as well. We had over 1,500 participants um joining us for this event across the two years. This year our target is over 2,000. So again, quite a bit of um uh growth that we're aiming to achieve with this event, but um we we feel it's possible it's such an um amazing event that so many people are um already doing in in in um in their um sort of um yeah free time. So we feel um it's absolutely achievable uh to get as many people as as possible involved. And um across those two years, um our participants walked over 80,000 kilometers, which is almost twice around Australia's coastline. So quite incredible. Um let's see where we can take it this year. As I said, it's a um it's an initiative by the Australian Um Conservation Foundation, and um any funds that are being raised through the challenge will help protect over 2,000 threatened animals, plants, and places, help us um continue our work to stop deforestation by exposing environmental crime, corruption, and negligence, um, and also gives our campaigners the opportunity to advocate for stronger climate and nature policies. Yeah, so why um we believe it's an amazing challenge to take part. Um, first of all, of course, it's um something that helps protect nature. Every dollar that is being raised through the challenge goes directly to supporting ACF's work and solving the extinction crisis and protecting the animals, plants, and places we all love. It's uh a challenge that um uh builds connection um by engaging family members, friends or workmates, or just um any other um nature lovers that um you know in your network. And of course, you're um doing something physical, you're getting active, um, supporting your well-being, uh, you're moving with purpose um and boosting your health. Getting involved is very simple and flexible. Um, it's um very simple to just head to Australia's biggest bushwalk.org.eu. Um there's an option to quickly sign up. Um you can either sign up as an individual or a team. Um uh fundraising will be supported all the way. Um, and we'll get to that in a in a minute as well, and what kind of support uh fundraisers receive. Um, and then um you get onto walking all the way throughout May. This year we've got some amazing partners on board already as part of Australia's Biggest Bushwalk. We have Patty Pallin um on board. They have been a long-term supporter of ours for the Australian Conservation Foundation, but um, we're really, really excited to support um Australia's Biggest Bushwalk again this year um and are um actually coming or have come on board as our headlining partner, uh which we're very, very excited about. And Vamos e-bikes, who um are founded in Sydney, um, their um Australian-based company, and um they've kindly donated an e-bike um as a sign-up and win prize for all of our participants. It's worth$5,000. So really, really amazing price for um to win for anyone who signs up. Thanks, Lori. Next slide. There are other rewards that our fundraisers, fundraisers, and participants can uh unlock as they go through the challenge. Um, you can see um some of um uh our favorite animals um wearing them here, um, things like the t-shirt, um, ABW t-shirt, a tote bag, um, or even a foldable backpack, which I'm personally pretty excited about. Um, we have worked with the local artists to bring to life the t-shirt and a tote bag as well. So it's very special um piece of artwork um on those two reward items, um, and they feature uh native Australian plants.
SPEAKER_06Very good.
SPEAKER_02This is uh probably one of my favorite um uh sort of hot of the press news. We also had um have confirmation, don't Dr. Bo Miles is um on board to support Australia's big big biggest bushwalk this year. Um if you don't know him, he is an Australian YouTuber, educator, and author, and very much an outdoorsman. Um, he has just under a million followers on YouTube, so very, very popular and uh also a huge following on Instagram. We're very, very excited to have him on board.
SPEAKER_03I think most people here would know who he is. He's come to many of our conferences and events. Oh, wonderful. That's brilliant.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and as I mentioned, you'll be supported um every step of the way by participating in um in the event. Um we have a really great online platform um that hosts a lot of resources from posters to social media tiles. Um, any kind of support that you need, you'll be able to find within um the online dashboard. We also um have a really amazing crew behind um uh the event that uh sends participants regular emails to support them with their fundraising or just provide updates on where their money and their fundraising um are going. And then there is also a Facebook group that is a really great networking opportunity um getting to know your fellow fundraisers and um just yeah, share all the wins as part of the challenge. Next slide, please. Um this year we're also very excited um to try some different formats for ABBW and uh and bring people together, not just virtually but um uh physically as well. We together with Patty Palin, we um uh partnered on their introduction to bushwalking um event series that they were hosting in all of um their stores across the country. And uh we also had a bushwalk um organized as part of Climate Action Week um just a couple of weeks ago, which um you can see here a couple of photos um uh brought quite a number of people together and um was hosted by one of our community group members um talking about um yeah, the region and uh local wildlife. Um I believe, Lori, you already have um our information pack, but um we're very, very happy to circulate that again to anyone who's interested and um uh it really provides us just some key information on on the event, um, why uh it is so important to get involved and and how simple it is to take part. So we'll be we'll we would be happy to circulate that again if needed.
SPEAKER_06Amazing.
SPEAKER_02And that's it from me uh for my short little presentation. Um thank you so much for um yeah, having me this morning and uh talking to you about Australia's biggest bushwalk. I might hand it over to you for any questions that you have.
SPEAKER_03Yes, any questions from anyone?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, correct. Yeah, I've got it's a sort of a bigger picture about um ACF in general and then because there's you know, as you know, there's lots of different uh conservation organizations um around and and just trying to think like in terms of um how would you differ from say the Witness Society? Um yeah, like what's the I I I yeah, what what's the vibe?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. Thanks, Carol. Um ACF is Australia's national environment organization, and we're um the only organization that actually focuses on nature and climate. So we believe that both are both are interconnected, and um our focus is not just on nature, which is uh the case for a lot of organizations such as the Wilderness Society. Um we also ensure that um there's strong policy um in terms of if uh in terms of all of the climate um uh work that needs to be done. So uh we're the only organization that has that national approach, which we are the only organization that focuses on both.
SPEAKER_07Got it.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Awesome. Any other questions for Denise before we leave her to her day? No. Oh Dave, was that a question?
SPEAKER_08Or no, I've got to go.
SPEAKER_03Okay, no worries. Okay, fabulous. Hi David.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna pull me bushwalking goes. Wonderful.
SPEAKER_03Well, Denise, thank you so much for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure having you, and I'm sure uh a lot of uh who's present here will be doing some more digging and seeing how we can support um this event. So thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful. Thanks so much for having me, Laurie, and um yeah, have a good day, everyone.
Skills Forum And Training Completions
Privacy Law Thresholds For Businesses
Member Tools, Grants, And Competitions
Awards, Masterclass, And Key Dates
Course Reviews And Access Opportunities
Fuel Shortages And Industry Advocacy
Final Links And Sign-Off
SPEAKER_03Pleasure. Take care. Okay, guys. So back on to the news of the day. So let me give you a uh snapshot of what's been going on. And you might remember I've been promoting the fact that Skills IQ uh industry forum was this week. It was on Monday, and it was an opportunity for the skills sector to get together. The uh the topic was around disability and inclusion. It was great to see Ryan Smith, who many of you might remember, came as one of our keynote speakers at our summit last year, um, as well as connecting with the minister on some of our uh challenges that we face in uh sport and recreation and in in uh more particular note our outdoor uh skills and leadership qualifications. So um, yeah, overall a great opportunity to connect with everyone. As you can see here, we had uh our human ability board, we had our skills uh IQ task uh board as well, and of course um the OCA board. So we had Dan and Carol, both from the Outdoor Council Board, uh, present there with me. So great to connect with everyone on events like this. Um, I just wanted to highlight that Human Ability have been working through a project which um has been around uh why completions are not uh what they probably should be with many of our courses. So I thought I'd share with you that the report actually found some key challenges to completions when it comes to certificate three, certificate four, even diploma. And of course, this is across all sectors, not just our industry, but um yeah, the highlighted areas were students' complex needs and capacity levels. Um, there was a disparity between what the students um needed and their capacity to be able to complete. Um, the second one was a misalignment between expectation and reality of the care sector. So obviously, human ability looks at all of the care and service industry. So that one was particularly high because that's a high proportion of the courses that are are run in uh in volume terms. Um, the third one was uh content and difficulty of training material, the the content wasn't um uh able to be uh translated is is the expression they used. Um, and students m didn't manage that difficulty in consuming um that material. Uh, maybe also a preconception of what they expected versus reality. Um, motivation to enroll may impact the likelihood of completion. So if they were forced by their parents to go do something after school, uh this was certainly something that came out in the survey that potentially that uh wasn't for a long-term effect and that they would withdraw in the early stages. Um, the other ones were acute challenges faced by remote and regional stakeholders, that tyranny of distance that they find, and wider systemic barriers. So I just thought it was interesting that the actual um full report is on Human Abilities website if you would like to download and have a closer look. The other thing I attended this week was around privacy laws, and I thought this is a good reminder for everyone just to make sure that they have their ducks in order when it comes to privacy legislation. You can have a look at the OAIC website, that is the government website for information confidentiality. And please remember that if you have an annual turn of over$3 million, these laws apply to you. Um, if you have a federal government contract, these laws apply to you. If you're in the health service, so probably more of our therapy side of the industry, these laws apply to you. Um, trades and personal um information that is relating obviously to our trade sector, not necessarily in our industry, um, but certainly if um if it were a credit provider, these laws do apply. And if you opt in, you do have the opportunity as a small business uh to. Opt in and uh and be part of of these laws. But there's 13 areas that the government um has in this law, and uh pretty much you know, having a look at each one of those will give you an understanding of what needs to be done by a business in protecting the information you have on your customers, your suppliers, and uh any other data that you hold. So you can have a look at the site there, but um there's your thresholds for whether this law is um part of your mix. So a reminder that we did release the employment guide for the outdoor industry a couple of weeks ago. So this document is in your portal, um, so it is available to all Outdoors New South Wales and ACT members, and it is in two sections: one for employer and one for employee, giving us a guide on what pay, working conditions, career pathways, workplace safety, all the different areas that we need to consider. It is meant to be a conversation starter and a reference tool for just day-to-day questions that might pop up in the industry. So it is done with you in mind to support you in those conversations. As I say, it does cover pay and awards as it currently stands today, uh, contracts, probations, uh, WHS, use of personal vehicles, and much, much more. So if that's something that you're interested in, please jump into your membership portal and you can download that at no cost to you. A reminder: we have this fabulous competition which could get some of your images out into the Australian context. So if you have a great image like here with Trav at Valley Outdoors, where he is showing some sun safe principles, um, those images are really valuable for not only just Cancer Council but the OCA. So we can showcase some of our amazing outdoor experiences, uh, give you a bit of promotion, but you could also go in the running to win a share of$950. So please jump in to outdoorcouncilAustralia.com slash sun safety and start uploading some of those sun safe images that I know you all have because we're all very sun safe. Trainee subsidies are still available. So if you are contemplating how you get your uh staff uh employed, how you get those jobs filled, might want to consider a traineeship. There is$2,500 for the employer and$2,500 that goes to the training. So that is because we are on the shortage skills list as outdoor guides. So if you're interested, jump into that QR code and it'll give you all the details you need. And it's probably the final reminder for this one because it's coming up very quickly, and these applications do take some time. But if you have a tour guide that you think is a top tour guide, uh maybe showcasing the best of adventure tourism, uh get them to submit a nomination to the top tour guide awards for New South Wales. If they win, they might go through and win the Australian Top Tour Guide Awards. Who knows? But nominations do close on Friday, the 10th of April, so that's coming up very quickly. So jump into the New South Wales Tourism Association website and nominate today. And our own industry awards are now open. So as you can see on screen, we have 13 categories that you can enter direct, and then another two categories that are not uh able to be entered into, but certainly will be decided by our judges and also our industry, which is the outdoor organization of the year, which makes up all of the finalists that uh will be coming through all the 13 categories and then selecting the organization of the year. And the industry's choice award will be up to public voting. So, again, all the finalists will be showcased on a website and enabled uh to have some votes. You can get your marketing plan ready and uh start promoting your option in these awards. We are calling for judges. We've got a great lineup of judges, very expert, uh, great experience that are going to support the entrance in their submission and giving some great quality feedback as well as saying who is the top gong for the year. So if you're interested in being part of that judging panel, please scan that QR code and you can join our wonderful group. Here's the key dates for you. The awards are open now, they do close on the 10th of May. The judges will be very busy between the 13th and the 31st of May judging all of your submissions. And then the People's Choice opens on the 15th of May, goes through to the 15th of June. We do have a judges deliberation day on the 9th of June, which we'll basically uh get them all around a table and work out who's going to take out Top Gong once they've done all the judging, and then the awards evening will be held in Jervis Bay on the 16th of July. Now that is the night of the second day of the masterclass. So our masterclass this year is the 15th and 16th of July, held at the beautiful Trinity Grammar School Outdoor Campus in Wallemeyer in Jervis Bay. So the awards will be that night, and all our gold members get to attend for no cost. The tickets will be released very soon if you're interested in coming along. This is two days where you get to work on your business or organization with all the topics that are going to be either disruptors or opportunities in the next two years. We have a great lineup of speakers for you, as well as some real key workshops where we get to really dig deep into some of these topics. So, as I say, the industry awards is on the 16th, and that's courtesy of our friends at Affinity Insurance Brokers. So, thank you to the team from Affinity for supporting these awards and making sure we continue to raise the bar in best practice and showcase the ones that are doing amazing things in our industry. And the outdoor learning mini conference is two days after that. So we'll be in Jervis Bay all week with various things. Now, this is the event for all the teachers, the facilitators, the preschool teachers, uh, the carers that want to get kids outdoors more often. Now, this is the last week for speaker expressions of interest. Now, that QR code will take you straight to that expression of interest. So if you have a skill, a knowledge piece that you'd like to share with teachers, this is the opportunity to come to and uh put your name down to present at that event. Again, this is two days, but it's actually one and a half days of solid uh workshop and information share and networking for outdoor educators and teachers. You might remember that Lachlan came along to our Connect and Share a couple of weeks ago, so this is a reminder that this opportunity is still open. It's open until the 13th of April. It is uh an expression of interest to use the facilities of all the government sport and recreation centres in New South Wales. So, as we know, they they vary from Lake Keep it to Broken Bay and beyond. Uh, if there's a facility that takes your fancy that you could use for some of your activities, this is your opportunity to submit into this process. And we had uh Jason come and share his new website with us about uh accessing Parks ACT and doing commercial activities. So a reminder for those that want to access some of those ACT parks, that is your website to go to for what you need to do as a tourism or a commercial activity provider. Now, this one is around the tour guide course. Now, this is a certificate uh four in tour guiding that is part of a review by Saxa, our other jobs and skills council. So we work with both Saxa and Human Ability because we've got a foot in both camps there. But this is the review of the tour guide qualification. Now, just for a bit of context, we've been talking to them about expanding the knowledge of adventure guiding in this qualification to extend our career path opportunities. Often when people go into this course, it might be very set into designed around museum guiding and uh interpretation guiding, but doesn't really give an aspect of the opportunities that adventure guiding could have. So we are certainly calling for people that are interested in being part of the technical committee to talk with Saxa about some of these opportunities and uh yeah, get some knowledge that we can extend our career path into uh into tourism and into outdoor guiding. So that QR code will take you to the expression of interest if you're keen to be part of that technical group, which just gives feedback on what we should be seeing as part of the new course. Now, back into reality of today. As we know, we're experiencing some interesting times. Ironic that it's six years nearly to the day since we all went into lockdown on the 23rd of March 2020. Now we're talking about rationing fuel, decreasing travel, and of course it is affecting us as well. Uh, only this morning I've been on radio interviews, I've got another interview this afternoon with the press around the impact that we are experiencing. So the Outdoor Council of Australia today will be releasing their open letter just to emphasize that we are also part of the industry group that is affected by what is happening. So if you have some really key things that are happening in your particular business, we urge you to fill in this survey and let us know so we can be advocating on behalf of yourself. We need to make sure that the outdoor industry is not forgotten in anything that is going to be coming out from policy, government support when it comes to these fuel shortages. I'm hearing already from you around the impact on staff and staff getting to particular businesses or locations for expeditions or even just work outside of their normal area. But we're also hearing about potential postponements. We're hearing anxious schools calling, wondering how their term is going to look next next uh next term or the term after when it comes to their school camp activities. So this is all the information we desperately need to make sure we have the right story from you and can advocate on behalf of yourself and the broader industry. It's important that we sit at that table with all the other industries so that we are factored in. Um so, yeah, any more on that we might uh discuss after we close today's recording. So, as we said, we've got the Australia's biggest bushwalk. We thank Denise very much for joining us this morning. Um, and uh feel free to jump on to their website and get all the information you need. But on that note, we might close the recording up and um we will see you all wonderfully next week. So have a great week, everyone, and look forward to chatting with all who's here today about what's happening around the grounds. So see you next week.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for joining the weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum, brought to you by Outdoors, New South Wales, and Australian Capital Territory, your peak body for the outdoor industry. Together with our members, we're shaping the future of the outdoors. See you next week for more insights and collaboration.