PLACES AND STORIES

What’s in a name? A lot, we reckon. Even before our trail is built.

They’re what make trails such a unique experience. This is why we’re doing a lot of thinking right now about how stories and the trail need to intersect. Names and stories embody a lot of power.

They shape meaning. And they’re what can give trails a unique experience. They are the signs we’re provided, the spaces and information our attention is directed to, and the words we hear. A trail’s success, it’s been shown worldwide, is as much to do with the experiences they create as the routes they traverse.

Which is why we’ve started yarning already about four things “storytelling” for our trail – well before its construction.

• our short film has already begun shooting and aims to showcase our landscapes and communities that the trail connects – thanks to the Maldon District Community Bank 
• innovative storytelling platforms that enliven stories particularly by the Dja Dja Wurrung people about Country through which the trail will pass
• we’ve got some talented volunteers wanting to look at what “interpretive history” might mean for our trail, including asking whose stories need to be told and what they might sound like
• and we’re recasting CMRT’s “purpose” to better account for all the trail’s big possibilities – including communities, stories and ecology – and initiatives like the region’s bid for World Heritage listing

Great trails are more than A to B. There’s stories built into their paths. Like the multi-purpose Brabralung Trail between Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain in Victoria’s High Country (images above). Here, pictures and words celebrate places and living things significant to First Nations people with hope, melancholy and poignancy. Or the Riesling Trail in South Australia’s Clare Valley which celebrates the region’s commitment across generations and early immigration to wine making.