Great North Walk

Great North Walk
The Great North Walk at Pennant Hills
Established	1988
Length	250 km (155 mi)
Location	New South Wales, Australia
Trailheads	Macquarie Place, Sydney / Bicentennial Park, Newcastle
Use	Hiking
Hiking details
Trail difficulty	Medium
Season	All

The Great North Walk is a walking track which runs from Sydney to Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. The main track, 250 kilometres (160 mi) in length, runs between the Obelisk in Macquarie Place in Sydney to Queens Wharf Tower in Bicentennial Park in Newcastle and is well sign-posted. There are many "side tracks" which link the track to populated areas along the length of the walk. The walk includes a huge variety of wildlife and scenery.

A 25-kilometre (16 mi) section at the northern, Newcastle end, is also known as the Yuelarbah Track. This section runs from the Teralba railway station to the Queens Wharf on Newcastle Harbour. At Kahibah Station, the Great North Walk uses a short section of The Fernleigh Track and passes along the northern side of Glenrock Lagoon to get to the coast.

The Great North Walk was initiated by Gary McDougall and Leigh Shearer-Heriot. They both planned and marked the original route from Sydney to Newcastle, with access to many linking tracks. Today's Great North Walk is quite true to the original trail. There have been books written around the walk.

The original name for the Great North Walk was the 'Sydney to Hunter Project'. The name 'the Great North Walk' was derived from the first road from the Hunter Valley to Sydney, called the 'Great North Road'. The track began construction in 1987 and was completed less than a year later in early 1988, in time for the Australian Bicentennial celebrations. Workers from several countries including China, Thailand and Vietnam were hired by the N.S.W. State Government to complete the track by 1988. A small amount of local controversy followed as the labourers won the contract to construct the track over a local landscaping and environmental business. Claim was made that the contract was only won because it cost as much as three times less than the local bid.