New 80km Sydney walking trail to connect two of Australia’s best beaches

The trail will be 'one of the best urban walks in the world'

Bondi beach will be connected to Manly beach via an 80km trail (Getty Images)

Plans for an 80km walking trail from Bondi beach to Manly beach in Sydney, Australia, have been revealed.

The Bondi to Manly route, which connects two of the country’s best surf beaches, has been proposed by Lachlan Harris, previously the press secretary to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and John Faulkner, the former Minister for Defence.

The track would take in some of Sydney’s most famous landmarks around the harbour, including Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Grotto Point, where there are numerous aboriginal engravings.

Some parts of the walk already exist, but the project would join them all together, using signposting to show walkers they’re on the right track.

“It doesn’t need infrastructure or to disrupt anyone’s existing use of the land,” Harris told The Daily Telegraph.

“It just needs explanation, a bit of promotion and some modest waymarking in the form of little symbols to keep walkers on track.”

The idea has garnered approval from the City of Sydney, various local councils, the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage and the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

It will all be on public land, utilising existing harbourside and coastal walking tracks to create the epic route.

“We’re sitting on a world-class walk right here in Sydney,” Harris added.

“The walk sits on what is widely accepted to be the greatest natural harbour in the world and it takes in four of the six most iconic places in the nation".

The Bondi to Manly website describes the trail as “one of the world’s great urban walks” and encourages people to donate to help make the dream become a reality.

The news comes in the wake of many other joined up routes being announced and rebranded over the last few years. The Great West Way has recently been launched in the UK, creating a touring itinerary from London to Bristol, while Patagonia’s news that a Route of Parks running from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn – a distance of 2,800km in total – had been created attracted international attention in September 2018.