"Holiday at home" was the catch-cry when Australia's borders closed in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. While some were quick to return to the jet-set lifestyle, many others are still choosing to holiday at home, having fallen in love - all over again - with Australia's natural attractions.
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00:00It is, perhaps, a case of don't build it and they will come.
00:07People on foot, on wheels, even on horseback, some running, some rambling, are flocking
00:14to WA's network of bush trails in unprecedented numbers.
00:19People reconnected or for some people they connected for the first time to the natural
00:23environment and I think all of the different trails experiences that we have in WA provided
00:28that perfect opportunity for people to engage.
00:31And one of the best places to engage is the southwest town of Dwellingup.
00:35People are coming to the former logging town in their thousands from around the state,
00:39around the country and around the world to cycle, hike or just meander along the local
00:44trails.
00:45We live in a world that can be quite chaotic and hectic so for me just being in trails
00:51and being in nature just really helps me kind of reflect on everything.
00:55When bike enthusiast John Cusack enjoyed Dwellingup's trails so much, he moved to
00:59the town.
01:00For him, riding keeps his mind and body active.
01:04You're out in the bush, you get to see all sorts of animals and birds, something that
01:10you can do by yourself, something you can do with a group of friends.
01:14Of course it hasn't always been this way.
01:17In the mid-1990s, Alicia Caruso's father, Peter White, owned a local adventure tour
01:22business and thought it might be a good idea to hire out a few bikes.
01:27I remember my wife saying to me, do you think mountain biking is a good investment?
01:31Do you think it's good?
01:32And I said, I think it's going to take off.
01:37It was a slow burn, but take off it did.
01:43Developing Dwellingup as a trail destination involved years of hard work by local business
01:48owners, local and state governments and the community.
01:51Country towns like this around the country, some of them are dying.
01:54They don't have enough activity in terms of economic activity.
01:58So it's really brought that activity and it's also brought a confidence to the town as well.
02:03So people are coming and investing.
02:04The hard work paid off in April 2024 when Dwellingup was rewarded with official trail
02:10town status.
02:11WA's Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries says the growth in
02:15popularity of the trails network was supercharged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
02:20COVID was sort of like a catalyst for taking it to that next level.
02:25And bikepacking and gravel bike riding and stuff, they're just like booming at the moment.
02:30Ms Gautler believes people's love affair with their own backyard is long term.
02:35I think in WA, maybe in the past, we kind of always looked to the east, we had always
02:39looked overseas.
02:41And then, you know, through the pandemic, we were forced to look in our own backyard.
02:45And I think people, it's really opened their mind and their kind of eyes to what's possible
02:49and what's here.
02:52The WA Government has invested tens of millions of dollars in enhancing and expanding trails,
02:58which it says include Indigenous Dreaming Network's 60,000 years in the making.