Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to do the Yuraygir Walk.
Close to 70 kilometres of stunning national park from Angourie to Red Rock, it’s the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the state.
For years, I have wanted to do this walk. Finally, with a small group of family and friends, we managed to scrape together a week’s break. With cabins booked, and light packs on our back, we set out into the winter sunshine.
We saw rainbows in the spindrift. Dolphins dancing in the air. The constant company of whales sailing north, while we drifted south.
Swimming in pristine rock pools and crystal-clear creeks.
Melodies from dozens of different birdsongs, with a rhythm section of frogs, insects, and the thunder-beat of waves from the world’s largest wilderness.
Without reservation or hesitation I want to recommend this walk in the park, for a myriad reasons: learning more about the lands where we live; deepening connections with people and place, and for some, the offer of an antidote to the snake byte of digital despair.
Green prescribing
Of course, I’m not a medical doctor, and can’t offer healthcare advice. But many medicos around the world are today prescribing a walk in the park. ‘Green prescribing’ is now well and truly a thing.
Three decades ago, doctors in New Zealand started writing ‘green scripts’ – explicitly prescribing more physical activity to their patients to improve health.
One early study randomly assigned close to 500 patients in Auckland and Dunedin to two groups.
For both groups, their GPs gave verbal advice to do more exercise, including more walking. But for just one group, the GPs put that advice in writing as well.
All study participants increased their physical activity. But the group who got the written prescription as well, benefitted more. Writing in 1998, the researchers concluded: ‘The green prescription was more effective than verbal advice alone in increasing the physical activity level over a six-week period.’
Clearly, that was just one small short-term study. But it suggested the simple addition of a written script could work magic. Research in this field has since exploded.
Nature works
Known now variously as ‘green social prescribing’ or using ‘nature-based interventions’ doctors and other healthcare workers from Helsinki to Melbourne are prescribing everything from walks in nature, including national parks, to swimming, gardening, and conservation volunteering.
And there are so many studies today that researchers are regularly publishing reviews summarising all the results, producing a convincing mountain of evidence.
In 2023, a review of over 80 studies about the impacts of nature-based interventions for vulnerable youth found ‘outcomes were largely positive’ for mental wellbeing and behaviour. Another 2023 review of studies found clear benefits for children with autism.
Yet another review in 2023 summarised all studies with cancer survivors, finding the benefits of connecting with nature included ‘improvements in anxiety, depression, sleep, connectedness, stress, tension, confusion, fatigue, and pain.’
In 2022, a review of six studies among people with mental illness found improvements in ‘biopsychosocial wellbeing’ and increased connection to country. The senior researcher behind that review is a local academic with an international reputation, Associate Professor Eric Brymer.
‘We know now from thousands of research papers from all sorts of fields – ecology, psychology, psychiatry, and others – that interacting with the natural world is really good for multiple mental health and wellbeing outcomes,’ says Eric Brymer, who has a position at Southern Cross University.
‘Not only is green prescribing good for people and the planet, there are financial benefits too,’ says Brymer. While the area is growing, he argues there’s a long way to go, as Australia is already behind countries like the UK.
The walk I did this month with family and friends was across country the Yaegl and Gumbaynggirr mob have been caring for and connecting with for millennia.
The Yuraygir National Park was only created in 1980, but in that short time bush regeneration has seen landscapes transformed from the sand-miners’ legacy of bitou bush, back to banksia and other natives. Like the comeback of the humpback, the return of heathlands and forests is an inspiring story of ecological restoration, particularly for the next generation.
If we want to celebrate the benefits of being in nature, we clearly can do more to restore what’s degraded and protect what’s left.
So let’s again mark the courage of those fighting to save Wallum and other places, and offer thanks and support. And if we can, let’s take another walk in the park.
• Dr Ray Moynihan is currently coordinating a Junior Landcare project with Brunswick Valley Landcare.
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