After the release of Sweltering Cities’ Cool Walks Toolkit, one of our supporters Cherie shared her simple yet incredibly impactful initiative helping people stay connected, active and safe during the hotter months.
It is getting increasingly harder during summer to maintain regular physical activity and social connection. While walking in the cooler evening hours can be one of the best ways to stay active during summer, it is not always a realistic option for everyone. Particularly for women, older people, and those walking alone, concerns around safety and visibility can make evening exercise feel inaccessible.
Cherie’s Night Walkers initiative offers a practical community response to this challenge.
What began as a small local walking group in Galston, NSW has evolved into a powerful example of grassroots community development. It has created safer opportunities for movement, reduced social isolation and helped people adapt to hotter conditions together.
This is what Cherie had to say about her work:
“I’m so glad the Cool Walks toolkit exists because it helped validate something I’d already been building instinctively at a grassroots level.
Night Walkers began very simply here in Galston, NSW, as a practical response to warmer evenings, creating a safe, social, low-cost way for people to stay active, connected, and more resilient. It started with just a handful of walkers and has continued to grow, evolving into something far bigger than exercise alone.
What’s been most powerful is that it’s become about:
- safer evening movement in hotter conditions
- reducing social isolation
- improving physical and mental wellbeing
- building routine, belonging, and local resilience
- showing that community solutions don’t always need major funding, sometimes they begin with one person creating a simple, repeatable idea
I’m passionate about helping people find realistic, accessible ways to improve wellbeing whether that’s through connection, sharing resources, cooler walking options, or creating homes and habits that work better in changing conditions.
The walk itself is intentionally simple: a local park circuit where people can move at their own pace while staying visible and connected, making it feel safer and more inclusive across ages and fitness levels.
What really excites me is how easily this kind of idea could be replicated elsewhere, especially as Australia faces hotter evenings and growing social disconnection. For me, it’s about practical adaptation helping people stay healthier, cooler, and more connected without needing expensive solutions.”
The Night Walkers initiative is an example of how Sweltering Cities’ Cool Walks Toolkit can be interpreted and adapted by communities in ways that reflect their own local needs and experiences. Sometimes, meaningful change begins with simple community-led ideas that make everyday life safer, healthier and more connected.
While a cool walk is a different concept, there is a clear overlap between the two projects. A Cool Walk is a guided community walk or roll through a suburb aimed at making observations of how the built environment impacts the walkability and comfort of the neighbourhood. They are also designed to create community connections, and give participants a sense of power in making small but impactful changes.
Cherie noted that the Cool Walks Toolkit has given her some ideas for incorporating more intentional observation and discussion into the walks.
“We’re seeing people connect socially, feel safer walking together at night, and become more aware of how heat is experienced in their local environment – particularly the difference between shaded areas, open spaces, and built-up sections.”
We know that extreme heat impacts far more than physical comfort. It affects mental health, social connection, access to exercise, and people’s ability to participate in community. As Australia continues to experience hotter summers and warmer nights, initiatives like Night Walkers show how local communities can build resilience together through low-cost, inclusive, and practical solutions.
Programs like this are important because they create more than opportunities for exercise. They help people feel safer in public spaces, strengthen neighbourhood connections, and support wellbeing in ways that are accessible to a wide range of people.
Here are some other things Cherie said:
- “It’s designed to be accessible. The circular path means people can walk at different speeds while still staying visible and connected.
- It’s intentionally simple and replicable: no fees, no fancy equipment, just a safe path, a time, and a small group of people looking out for each other.
- To me, the beauty of Night Walkers is that it gives people a small, safe first step. Sometimes that’s all someone needs before they feel brave enough to take bigger steps, socially, physically, or personally.”
Cherie’s story is also a reminder that some of the most effective climate adaptation responses already exist within communities themselves. By sharing ideas, supporting grassroots initiatives, and making cooler movement more accessible, we can help ensure people remain active, connected, and resilient in a warming climate.
We would love to see people getting out into their neighbourhood and doing their own Cool Walk or an adapted version of it. Sign up to be a volunteer with Sweltering Cities so we can help you, and read about what a Cool Walk is here!
