Jesse Brampton conceived the “Building a Better Bibbulmun Track Project” in 1993, following his 650 km walk on the “old” Track several years earlier.  The detailed submission he prepared for DBCA’s predecessor, CALM, outlined a major realignment, an extension to Albany and a substantial upgrade to facilities, based on the famed Appalachian Trail in the USA (which he’d walked in the late 1980s).  This was the beginning of a mammoth project that was to last five years – a project managed by Jesse throughout.

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Building partnerships with the Ministry of Justice, Federal funding agencies, eight different CALM offices, numerous community groups and a growing list of corporate sponsors led to momentum that engaged then-Premier, Richard Court and his government.  Five million dollars of resources were raised, hundreds of kilometres of new trail were flagged and constructed, almost 50 new campsites came into being, and by 1998 WA had a truly world-class 1000 km walk trail stretching from Kalamunda to Albany.  None of this would have happened without Jesse’s strategic planning, communication and organisational skills – and the “new” Track remains a legacy to his driving desire to “get people out into the bush – for their wellbeing, and for the sake of the environment”.