14 informonline.org.au
14 informonline.org.au Feature Taking to the trails Anthony Bartl remembers the moment clearly. He was in the Grampians National Park, north-west of Melbourne in Victoria, when he came to a clearing in the forest and found himself taken aback by what he saw. ‘There was this whole family of kangaroos, so there were joeys, their parents, it was just a pretty awesome, awe-inspiring sight. I'd never seen anything like it. The kangaroos just sat there, and they weren't perturbed by the sight of me being in a TrailRider,’ Anthony said.
Feature informonline.org.au 15 After an accident left him a quadriplegic, Anthony’s access to the natural wonders of the Australian bush shrunk. He credits the TrailRider with giving him some of that access back. ‘[It] takes me back to before the accident. I used to go for long walks with my family before my accident. Yeah, it's just like being back there and amongst the people again and not feeling excluded because I'm in a wheelchair,’ he said. ‘You can lift it across riverbeds and [take it to] inhospitable terrain. I love that fact, that you can access a lot more places that are usually inaccessible in a wheelchair.’ ‘I'm a real lover of the bush and the outdoors so to be able to get more amongst that it was just a wonderful feeling and experience.’ ‘It's just liberating. It's just a fantastic feeling and sensation.’ Today there are TrailRiders at parks across the country. And that is thanks to the advocacy of one man: David Stratton. David had seen the innovative design in action while holidaying in Canada. When he returned home to Victoria, he contacted Parks Victoria immediately. ‘He was the real instigator and motivator,’ said Shauna Jones, Senior Manager of Health & Community Activation at Parks Victoria. ‘He came back to Parks Victoria and said, I've seen this fantastic apparatus that allowed me to get out into the mountains and go reconnect with nature in a way that I used to as a boy. And he set about really advocating very strongly to Parks Victoria to consider buying these TrailRiders, a number of them, to try and open up parks to people with mobility issues.’ David’s persistence paid off and Parks Victoria purchased a number of TrailRiders.
