We are all going through an unprecedented time. We have seen large parts of Australian native landscapes burn this summer and communities devastated by the same fires. We then had a series of storm and flood events causing further strain. While we were distracted by these important things, an even more serious emergency was bubbling away in the background. I was on my way to America in mid-January when I first got a sense of this virus; now as a community it is all we can talk about.

The future is unknown. Overland TrackMatt McClelland

42 | BWA April 2020

Three sisters practising social distancingInspired by The Blue Mountains Times

We now think back to our math classes trying to remember the concepts of exponential growth and have new terms like “flatten the curve“ in our lexicon. People online have switched from being “experts” on climate change to fire management, to storm forecasting, to virologists, to public health, to pathology testing. In the next few weeks they will think they are experts in intubation, ventilators and medical equipment procurement. Financial experts are many, with wildly differing views. This will keep going as we work through all the further pending issues and the series of debates, reviews and comparison of countries different responses and outcomes. We then need to brace to see if there will be a second wave of this virus next year.

As I write this the USA has just surpassed Italy and China to have the highest number of raw recorded cases. India is going on lock down and Australia has just limited the maximum general gathering size to two people. The world is changing.

As with all parts of society, bushwalkers have also been impacted. At this stage it is not from the virus itself but from the series of behaviour changes that have been encouraged to slow the spread of the virus that is causing the impacts. Everyone has responded differently to these. Some feeling we need to do a lot more than the government is asking and others saying it is a massive overreaction. Most seem to be adapting to the changes well.

Sometimes what looks like and overreaction is simply effective. It is not always obvious how effective something was and ironically the more effective it is the more likely it is seen to be an overreaction. This is common when you manage a burn for someone. They come in contact with something hot, you encourage then to cool running water quickly and stay there for 10 minutes. Afterwards when they see there is hardly any burning, many people will say, “What an overreaction, the burn is tiny.” Effective management techniques that are not well understood often look like an overreaction. In the case of the pandemic we will see so many different experiences over the world. We will see some countries completely overwhelmed and others that have much more effective control measures. Time will tell how the communities views these differences and how well we learn to prepare for the next pandemic.

Anyway – I digress. I am here to think about what we as individual bushwalkers have done and can do in response to the pandemic.

In an effort to keep bushwalking in clubs safe I came up with recommendations for a large bushwalking group. The context was that they walk in a large range of contexts and have a large population of people considered vulnerable due to being over 70 years old.

BWA April 2020 | 43

Basically, there will be an expectations for all government staff to be ready to change roles from less essential to more essential tasks. This may well include staff from parks departments being asked to help with welfare, logistics, equipment distribution or medical admissions. Even if never asked to change roles there will be work that senior staff will be doing to manage the possibility.

Limited resourcesThe other side of the capacity building coin is reducing potential resource drains. It is important to avoid significant drains on resources. At normal times S&R teams have the capacity to go out and perform their extraordinary duties. At times of surge capacities these resources are stretched performing immediate life-threatening roles, such as helicopters transporting patients or equipment. If helicopters are needing to respond to a bushwalker who is lost, having a heart attack, or a broken bone, then there is a real question of whose life do they try to save. This will mean some states suspend overnight walking and close very remote areas. I know that as experienced bushwalkers we feel an accident cannot happen to us. Perhaps it is less likely, but it still can. This is all a numbers game. If we say no to 1000 people we may save one resource. I know that being out bush feels like the perfect way to practise social distancing, but this is one of the main reasons it is not advised.

Rapidly changingWe have all become familiar with graphs and the idea of exponential growth. The struggle with pandemics of high infectious diseases is the rate of growth seems so slow at first, then suddenly it is overwhelming. As disease spreads, the rules and community expectations will change rapidly. Most agencies will try to keep a bit ahead of the compliance requirements to give themselves a buffer zone. When the government announces significant community changes they often do it with only 24 or 48 hours’ notice. Agencies need to be very agile to be able to just implement these changes, let alone deal with all the community communications and compliance.

Risk to remote communitiesOne of the reasons to discourage non-essential travel is to protect remote communities. Remote communities are often more vulnerable to disease due to reduced exposure to similar illnesses and significantly lower access to medical resources. Simply filling up with fuel or popping to a bakery when driving a few hours to go for a walk may inadvertently spread the disease into this and other communities along the way.

So what does this look like at time of publishing?The following table is a quick snapshot of how each region’s national park service has responded at the end of March 2020. You need to visit their websites to get the details and latest information. This table is to give a sense of national happenings rather than giving you local advice.

So what is the core message? The core message is really everything we have been told a thousand times already. It is wash your hands, minimise your interactions with other people, keep distant from those you do interact with, stay home as much as possible. Stay home if you are vulnerable, when you are sick, or when required to by law.

Even as Australia becomes more locked down, those who are well and not required to stay isolated, will be allowed out to the supermarket and to do essential jobs. Chances are we will still be allowed out to walk locally (in pairs). So let's stay home to do our bit. Stay fit by walking locally from your house, explore local bushland.

After we peak and the hospital capacity returns to normal we will get the opportunity to start doing more and more again. Life as we knew it will probably never return to “normal”, and we will learn new helpful behaviours that are good for us to keep. Life will return with all the usual freedoms again, but here are some tips that are likely to be helpful as we find our new “normal” life again. Some of this will be for a short time as the virus finally dissipates and others will stay for the long term.

BWA April 2020 | 45