THE KARENS
The story of an unsung hero and her list of one hundred high points in NSW’s Shoalhaven Region.
Two years ago, back in 2022, Karen Davis (pronounced Car-en) was contemplating a swim. She lives in NSW’s Shoalhaven district—two-and-a-half hours south of Sydney, and roughly the same east of Canberra—a 4,567km² area of coast and hinterland with some of the finest beaches in the world. Hyams Beach, in particular, is famed for its squeaky, white sand; the beach is now in danger of being loved to death.
As a result of Hyams Beach’s popularity, Shoalhaven City Council initiated a “100 Beaches Challenge”, aimed at spreading the tourist load along the region’s 125km of coastline. But the Shoalhaven also has much to offer the bushwalking fraternity: Coastal walks along fantastic sea cliffs and beaches, and through forests of old man banksia and bangalay and stately spotted gums; inland hikes along the escarpment cliffs of Morton and Jerrawangala National Parks, or up into the peaks of the Budawangs. It incorporates all or part of many national parks and reserves, including Budderoo, Jerrawangala, Morton, Budawang, Jervis Bay, Booderee, Cudmirrah, Conjola and Murramarang. It also includes the Ettrema Wilderness Area.
The problem is that some walks in the Shoalhaven can get crowded. There are times walking in the Budawangs, especially entering from Wog Wog on a weekend, when you can feel like you’re part of a conga line. Climbing Pigeon House in Morton
NP is the same. But while thinking about her swim at one of the Shoalhaven’s designated 100 Beaches, Karen—a long-time member and prolific walks leader of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers Club—happened to read an article called ‘The Abelists’ in the Summer 2021 Issue (#185) of Wild. The piece was about climbing Tasmania’s ‘Abels’, a list of 158 mountains in the state that are above 1,100m and have a prominence of at least 150m. She had a lightbulb moment: Why not do the same in the Shoalhaven? Why not come up with a list of high points that would take some of the pressure off the Budawangs, and at the same time showcase the walking potential of the rest of the Shoalhaven.
KAREN IS A BORN ORGANISER, full of ideas, with usually two or three projects simultaneously in the pipeline. In 1999, she and her husband Brett—having just spent three years cycling 17,500km around Australia—moved to the Shoalhaven and almost immediately joined the Shoalhaven Bushwalking Club. Over the years, their contribution to the club has been enormous. Karen has led over 260 club walks, many in remote areas, and has been on the committee for twenty years, including eight as president. Brett— tall, rangey and red headed, although these days sporting a very Father Christmas style beard—spent two years in the president’s
chair, and has been the club’s webmaster since, well, forever. They were both awarded Life Membership of the club in 2016.
The pair didn’t restrict their volunteering to just the Shoalhaven, however, or only to bushwalking. In 2008, they became Australian Wildlife Conservancy volunteers, and have done caretaker and survey stints at Newhaven (NT), Buckaringa (SA), Pungalina (NT), Bowra (QLD—twice) and Mornington Sanctuary (WA). And somewhere along the line they joined Birdlife Australia, and in 2014 were instrumental in establishing a branch in the Shoalhaven. Karen is the group’s treasurer, Brett the secretary, webmaster, and publisher of its quarterly e-magazine.
But back to Karen’s idea for Shoalhaven’s high points. Coming up with lists is not something new for her. Back in 2006, while perusing topographic maps for possible club walks, she noticed the Shoalhaven had an unusually high number of trig points (fixed survey stations), many in interesting places. So, she thought, why not try to visit them all. After much cross-referencing of maps and correspondence with helpful officers in NSW’s Department of Lands, she and her husband Brett came up with an official list of 74. Thirty of these they ticked off straight away as having been previously visited; it left 44 to go. With some trigs on private property, others on public buildings (like water towers, dams, and the Council chambers) and more on restricted Defence-controlled land, this was no easy undertaking. With the assistance of a hard-core group of Shoalhaven Bushwalkers, and Brett’s encouragement and support, the project was completed over the next twelve months. The finale was a difficult three-day bush bash to the Ettrema Trig; it was fitting given that the Club’s newsletter—The Ettremist—is named after the Ettrema Wilderness Area.
That list of trig points, however, was just a warmup for Karen when it came to creating her new list of Shoalhaven high points. She set to work, poring over topographic maps. She soon realised, however, that she had to define what exactly a Shoalhaven summit was. This was not necessarily easy. As Karen laBteeyrowndroCtreadle
Mountain, Tasmania's in The Ettremist, “I had long and involved discussions with my Overland Track winds husband Brett, and applied great thought tosotuhteh, bperosvt i dienfignpiu- blic tion of a Shoalhaven summit. It was not an easy htaustsk ftoor cahll owoaslekers, without sky-high fees
SHE SET TO WORK, PORING OVER TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS. SHE SOON REALISED, HOWEVER, THAT SHE HAD TO DEFINE WHAT EXACTLY A SHOALHAVEN SUMMIT WAS. THIS WAS NOT NECESSARILY EASY.”
between the many mountains, hills, spot-heights, knobs, and high points in the Shoalhaven. The exercise also makes you realise how big the Shoalhaven is and how remote some of these unheard-of summits are. The highest mountain in the Shoalhaven is Mt Budawang at 1,138m. The lowest named mountain is Mt Jervis … which rises to the grand height of a little over twenty metres! And there is an unnamed plateau topped by Sassafras Trig that rises to 822m. So, should Mt Jervis be included because it has a name, and Sassafras Trig be rejected because it does not have a name? A height limit, or height above its surrounds, excludes some well-known and interesting points. An 800m limit eliminates Pigeon House; a 700m limit excludes Mt Bushwalker; and even a 300m limit would see Durras Mountain absent from the list. In the end I have decided to do away with limits, rules, and definitions—all of which are somewhat arbitrary in themselves—and to make my list totally arbitrary, consisting of high points that I consider are features of the Shoalhaven, and which make interesting walk destinations.”
Karen soon realised the list would come to around 100; given Shoalhaven Council’s 100 Beach Challenge, a hundred seemed an appropriate cutoff mark for her list. But then came her next decision: what to call the list. Karen has written that she and Brett “brainstormed and rejected names like the ‘Evans’ (an early Shoalhaven explorer that is also the name of two life members of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers), the ‘Yuins’ (Aboriginal Country name), the ‘Summits’ (boring), the ‘Wangs’ (short for Budawangs but potentially controversial), the ‘Billys’ (after Currockbilly).” But it’s worth going into a little history here, because the Abels in Tasmania isn’t the only list of peaks like this. That list itself was modelled on similar lists in the UK like the Munros—282 Scottish peaks with heights over 3,000 feet (914.4m), named after Sir Hugh Munro, who charted and produced the first list of such hills in 1891— and the Wainwrights, 214 peaks (fells) in England’s Lake District named after author Alfred Wainwright, who wrote a seven-volume series of books called the Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells; the Wainwrights are those peaks included in the guide.
In short, there was historical precedent in terms of naming the lists after the person who came up with the list. And so it was that Karen decided to name the list ‘The Karens’, simply because she could. Some may think that’s a bit presumptuous. But Karen and husband Brett Davis are just two of the unsung and rarely acknowledged grassroots heroes within local bushwalking, conservation, and environmental communities. They never blow their own trumpets, so if Karen wants to put her name to the high points of the Shoalhaven, I say, go for it. You have earned that right many times over.
Ed’s note: To date, Karen has summitted 65 of the peaks on her list, with the most recent being #49: Water Race Creek (643m). She says #20: Mt Mooryan (824m) will likely forever remain out of her reach as it involves rock climbing and serious exposure.