Australia's long-running adventure magazine Wild has just released its Spring 2026 edition, issue #201, and it leans harder into conservation than most issues in recent memory. Two major features examine wild places under pressure: one on the Nullarbor, the vast treeless plain crossing the bottom of the continent, and another on the Tyndall Range in Tasmania's west, an area increasingly in the spotlight as development and tourism pressures mount. A shorter piece covers the proposed Great Koala National Park in NSW, and there's an interview with veteran environmental campaigner Karen Alexander, plus the magazine's regular Green Pages roundup. Even the big walking feature — a coastal traverse through Takayna, the Tarkine region of northwest Tasmania — doubles as an argument for protecting the place it describes.
If that sounds heavy, don't worry: the adventure quotient is intact. A photo essay follows Corsica's GR20, one of Europe's toughest and most scenic long-distance routes, and there's a month-long trekking story from Nepal's Solukhumbu, the region that includes the approaches to Everest. Closer to home, there's off-track hiking in NSW's Capertee Valley — the widest canyon valley in the world — and Track Notes on South Australia's Investigator Trail on the Eyre Peninsula coast. Mountain bikers get a spectacular Patagonia spread, and a personal essay on Mt Bogong, Victoria's highest peak, rounds out the big-ticket reads.
The smaller pieces are where the practical value sits for most trip planners. There's a feature on women's physiology and endurance activities, a how-to on hiking safely in the tropics, a Wild Bunch excursion to Barrington Tops in NSW, and the return of the magazine's popular Unsung Heroes instalment — the annual celebration of volunteer track workers and trail advocates, which the editors cheekily suggest will awaken your inner dirtbag. Usual suspects like gear reviews, columnists and gallery photography fill out the rest.
For travellers, this issue works as a spring planning menu as much as a magazine. The domestic stories alone cover four states plus Tasmania, from short walks to multi-week expeditions, while the GR20 and Solukhumbu pieces are useful research if you're weighing an overseas trek for next year. The conservation angle is worth reading even if you're just choosing where to go: understanding what's threatened on the Nullarbor or in Takayna tends to sharpen the case for seeing these places now, and treading lightly when you do.
Wild #201 is on newsstands now, and the magazine is currently offering a free titanium water bottle valued at $69.95 with new subscriptions via wild.com.au/subscribe — a decent nudge if you've been meaning to support independent outdoor journalism.
