Walking the Rabbit Rroof Fence

Western Australia, 2016

Retracing the journey and story of Molly, Daisy and Grace's 1000 walk home across Western Australia

Whilst hauled up in Byron Bay with a broken leg in 2007, I came across the film and book Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence. It's a moving tale about three young aboriginal girls who were forcibly removed from their families and placed in a settlement in 1931. Children taken during this time became known as the Stolen Generation. Molly, the eldest of the girls, engineered an escape and they walked all the way home, crossing some of Australia's most inhospitable environments, following the Rabbit Proof Fence. They had no maps, no provisions, no shoes. Nothing, but each other.

Shortly after being acquainted with their story my dad suddenly passed away. In a deep, dark hole of depression, and back home in England, I was totally lost, and began self-harming to help process it all. One accident which led to A&E made me realise I had to channel the negative energy another way, and I entered the London triathlon. Having not ridden a bike since I was 12 years old, I struggled and wondered how on earth was I going to complete it. I then remembered how those three young girls traversed 1000 miles across Australia's desert and it put it all into perspective.

Their story helped spur me on when I was at my lowest. So, I always wanted to return to Australia to retrace their journey and to walk the fence.

It was so wonderful that I’m now writing a book about it. If you’d like to hear more about it or how my book is coming along then please get in touch.