Greg Walker Oral History - Sailing & Surfing

DETAILS

Overview
2025 Interview:

Greg Walker was born in 1945 to parents Arthur Maxwell and Margaret Campbell (nee Walcott) Walker. He has an older brother Sandy and younger brother Bill. The family moved to Noosaville when he was a toddler, living adjacent to his grandparents Edward Emery and Martha Mary Walker on the corner of Gympie Terrace and Robert Street in Noosaville. The family later moved to Allambie Rise, Noosa Heads.
Greg recounts any idyllic life, starting in childhood and continuing to this day, of sailing, boating, fishing, camping, and surfing as well as his career as a pilot in Australia, New Guinea and Hong Kong. He also talks about the role the boat The Jannett has played in family life for four generations of the Walker family and the amount of time that has been invested into maintaining the boat. He poetically likens the many enjoyable elements of his life to windows which opened onto something to be enjoyed for as long as it lasted, when another window would be waiting to be opened onto a different experience.
Greg provides detailed and interesting discussion of many places, people, and activities in Noosa including:
- The natural coming and going of the foredune system along Noosa North Shore/Teewah beach
- Sandmining on North Shore and the change in techniques between the 1950s and the 1960s.
- The establishment of the Cooloola National Park and Noosa National Park and his parents involvement in these campaigns and the Noosa Parks Association
- Family association with Arthur Harrold
- Family camping and fishing at Fig Tree Lake and Teewah Beach
- Early surfboard making and evolution of surf boards
- Surfing etiquette
- Relationship between Surf Club and surfboard riders
- Importance of influential Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne people in Noosa Parks Association and Margaret Walker’s role in bringing them into the association via her holiday letter agency
- His career as a pilot including types of planes flown and time in Papua New Guinea
- The boat Jannett, it’s role in the Walker family, and its various refits and overhauls
- His father’s role as local ‘scribe’ in Cooroy, Tewantin and Noosa
- The subtle differences between surfing beach breaks vs point breaks

Oral History Transcript

Greg Walker Oral History - Transcript

Greg Walker Oral History - Transcript - 2025

Audio

Greg Walker Oral History - Audio

Greg Walker Oral History - Audio - 2025

Video

'Jannett', Noosa River, Noosaville, December 2023

Greg Walker Oral History - Video - 2025

Photograph

Boating party, October 1981

Greg Walker Oral History - Sailing & Surfing

IDENTIFIERS

Subject (Keywords)SailingSurfing MiningEnvironmentBoats

CONNECTIONS

LocalityNoosavillePersonGreg WalkerFamilyWalker FamilyOrganisation & ClubNoosa Parks AssociationBoatJannettProjectNoosa History of SurfingNoosa's Sporting HistoryMenuDecade | 2020-2029Location | NoosavilleDecade | 1990-1999