Walking Back to Ourselves: A Bushwalker’s Call for Balance in Urban Planning
Bushwalking guide Kip Cameron of Natural Perspectives. Photo: The Biophilic Blueprint
From studying urban planning to leading groups through the bush, Western Australian bushwalking guide Kip Cameron has followed a path that winds from the bureaucratic edges of city-making to the living, breathing wisdom of the land. His journey points toward the invitation for more balance in urban planning—and even more than that, how we lead our lives and businesses.
Calling for a more “artistic”, “mythopoetic”, and ecological way to help inform urban planning, Kip argues that forging ahead with “mechanised, industrial perspectives” disconnects us from nature.
Kip is the business owner and bushwalking guide of Natural Perspectives in the South West of Western Australia. His work shows the value of nature in our lives—not just to project the environment, but for the wellbeing of humans too.
When The Biophilic Blueprint spoke with Kip on the banks of a flowing stream close to the Bibbulum Track—one of the world’s great long distance walk trails, stretching 1000km in Western Australia—he reflected on how his business was birthed from his perspective on the limitations in his studies of urban planning.
We sat near what the community calls a “Grandmother Tree” in Balingup—a small town that reminds us both of The Lord of the Rings. It’s whimsical, deeply green, and the running water seemed to mirror the rhythm of our conversation.
“I was getting a bit disenfranchised with the bureaucratic world of urban planning and a few other challenges around bureaucracy and the kind of industrial world.”
“I enjoyed my time at university,” he says, “but the curriculum was very bureaucratic. That's what urban planning and urban design has become. It's scientific in a sense. It's lost its artistic flair.”
That loss, he explains, is part of a much longer cultural shift. “As a whole, our culture has become very mechanistic and scientific and reductionistic and materialistic. It’s a momentum of the last three, four hundred years of industrial revolution, and that kind of industrial mindset has percolated out into every kind of discipline and modality, including urban design and urban planning.”
“Through my studies and reading the literature, I started leaning into nature, and it was the patterns and the principles that existed in the natural world over the urban world—that's where all the juice was, all the good stuff.”
Kip said he reviewed literature on the “basic bedrock values” or “principles” in which a culture is centred and grounded upon. It gradually migrated towards studying nature and the patterns and principles of nature and other offshoots, he reflects.
“I was studying neighbourhoods and communities and how I can find sustainability—and what conditions create the best livelihood and sense of well-being,” he explains. “I did a thesis exploring notions of tranquillity and suburbia.”
As we chat together, the water beside us trickles steadily past, reminding us that there are always currents beneath the surface—unseen but shaping everything.
The loss of artistic flair—and the wild side
Kip tells The Biophilic Blueprint modern planning is missing an artistic flair—which he says can be found by people returning to nature for perspectives. Inviting the wild into our structures, he suggests, creates balance. Advocating for “a mythopoetic and artistic relationship to life,”, Kip says it honours subjectivity, qualitative experience and the wisdom of the land itself. “Big fundamental shifts need to be had,” he insists. “A lot of people feel this way as well.”
For Kip, it’s about people connecting to the land to listen to its wisdom—and he shares how this has informed the way he leads his business, his groups, and his own wellbeing.
He argues that connecting to the wild broadens our perspectives—with deep ecology offering a framework for informing place. Drawing on inspiration from the late deep ecologist Joanna Macy, Kips says the concept translates “indigenous wisdom” into “westernised” ways of thinking”, which also makes it “approachable” for children.
“It’s an understanding of life and the processes of life and how we can connect more with what she calls The Great Turning. It’s about being active participants in the climate catastrophe and ecological destruction, and finding a sense of place and embodiment and direction through this existential crisis we’re all facing.”
For him, deep ecology offers both solace and structure. “It can all be so overwhelming, but deep ecology provides a step-by-step guide and a framework for finding your place within that.”
“I’m on a bit of a quest to find the alternate to that mechanised, industrial perspective,” he says. “And for me, it's bush walking. It's an opportunity to connect in with the wild world and around ourselves, and connect in with a psyche much larger than what exists within our mind.”
Kip Cameron leads bush walks on the Bibbulmun Track—one of the world’s great long distance walk trails, stretching 1000km in Western Australia.
Inviting the outside in
This personal quest started with a desire to calm his own nervous system and would run parallel to the questions Kip had about the healthy livelihoods and ways to shape communities. Spending time in nature and practicing Qigong, a Taoist practice similar to Tai Chi, he noticed more and more the impact of nature on his wellbeing.
“The practice incorporates the elements of nature into your body and aligns with the geometry of nature,” he explains. For him, this aligned perfectly with the direction he was already moving—away from mechanistic systems and toward embodied patterns drawn from the earth.
Relocating to the Perth Hills was a natural progression, and it was here he discovered his love for the Bibbulmun Track—a trail which has now become his second home, and main trek to lead groups.
“I did the first end-to-end in 2018—that was a solo thing. I did another end-to-end in 2022/2023,” he recalls. “I slowly started putting the pieces together that I felt calmer out in nature, and the concept of eco therapy came into my lexicon. I nerded out after that, and started to explore what eco therapy was.” Philosophers and poets such as Henry David Thoreau have also shaped his outlook alongside long days on foot.
Bushwalking, for Kip, is not simply exercise or leisure—it is a form of therapy, philosophy and even quiet activism.
It is also profoundly human. “As hunter and gatherers, we walked for several hours every day, so it’s built within our DNA. It's that returning to what made us who we are,” Kip says. “For so many people who live in the urban world, just having your feet on the grass or watching a sunset … it's enough, and there's so much beauty to that. We live in such a disconnected time away from nature that just being outdoors is very simple.”
Natural Perspectives group hike in Western Australia.
A different viewpoint: Echoing ancient wisdom verses linear progress
Out of these insights, Kip founded Natural Perspectives, and for two years has guided small groups—often people from urban environments—into nature. Now entering his fourth season, he shapes the business around cycles rather than linear outputs—a contrast to modern ways of conducting business.
“It’s been a big step up in leadership,” he reflects, “and for me, living in my sense of authenticity. It’s been a real passion and a dream come true to align business with my soul, so to speak.”
Rest is essential to his model—with regeneration a practice that promotes creativity and productivity, springing to life out of seasons of hibernation. “I call it my hibernation season in winter, and sometimes in summer as well. Like a bear, it’s a chance to recalibrate and dream up new things. Each time I come out of that break, it’s like a rebirth.”
“Intellectually, I get very inspired. Physiologically, I feel more happy, grounded, talkative for a couple of days after a hike. I journal so much out there—it’s like an open canvas where everything unravels and opens up.”
This cyclical approach, he notes, echoes Indigenous wisdom traditions and contrasts with the West’s obsession with linear progress. “In the West, we view things with a linear mindset, which can get us into a lot of trouble.” Kip adds that rather than push ahead, sometimes the answer to problems and stagnation is to step back.
“A lot of the time we'll have challenges or get in ruts, and it’s just like the old saying: go take a walk.
“That’s what the business is about—honouring the simplicity of that.”
While there are benefits to multi-day hikes, Kip says walking or simply spending time outdoors can be carried into everyday life. “It’s not an exclusive hobby or activity,” he says, encouraging people to visit their local parks too. “There's scientific studies at hospitals where patients who had views overlooking the gardens recovered quicker than those who were overlooking brick and other built things.
“For me, that's the foundation of good health—aligning with the sun, and probably to a less extent, the moon as well. Getting your rhythm in tune—that's one of the biggest benefits from walking,” he explains. “It's approachable for everyone, wherever you're at in life, nature can meet you and guide you and support you.
Longer hikes deepen one’s experience with walking and nature, Kip explains. “You notice that after two or three days on the trail, all those thoughts start to settle down—you drop in and submerge or surrender.
“You're kind of swallowed up by nature.
“From every single angle you're engulfed and you might not have phone reception, so in a really soothing way, it forces you into a different mode of perception.
“It’s the place I feel most embodied. You then come back feeling a lot more inspired in that depth. The way it influences your perception … that sticks with you. And I'll always have a lot to integrate, and I journal so much from a space of creativity where it's an open canvas out of nature, and everything starts to unravel and open up.”
Kip says it is this practice of being engulfed by nature that opens us to new perspectives—or helps us return to our roots.
The act of surrender itself from modern day thinking allows us to explore whether our systems are contributing to the wellbeing of people, community and all living systems.
“Our whole DNA and biology co-evolved alongside nature, whether it be like the sound of the stream in front of us or the birds behind us … the architecture of our ear was constructed to respond to these things.”
As he tells this story, we pause. A sudden burst of kookaburras erupts in wild laughter. It seems, they too, agree on the sentiment.
Kip Cameron in Balingup. Photo: The Biophilic Blueprint
Bringing two worlds together
Feedback from his groups has been resoundingly positive. “People have really loved it and cherished it,” Kip says. “I take groups of four plus myself, so it’s a chance for an intimate, genuine experience of bushwalking.”
The participants are often leaders themselves—a peace negotiator who works in conflict zones, a youth worker supporting troubled teens. “It feels really good that I can support others who are supporting others as well. But I’m not really doing the supporting. It’s nature, Mother Earth, doing the supporting.”
As a facilitator, he sees his role as gentle. “I’m almost on the outskirts, nudging and prodding in certain areas. But for the most part, it’s people having a genuine experience out in the wild world.”
He is also conscious of walking respectfully between cultural frameworks. “As a space holder, it’s been really interesting as I want to approach Indigenous spirituality and that cyclical, non-linear approach. But I also understand I’m within a Western framework and have a level of organisation. I’m really enjoying bringing those two worlds together, and doing it in a sustainable, grounded, fair, just manner.”
At 31, Kip feels his journey is still just beginning. “I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my life. Many, many decades moving forward.”
Why The Biophilic Blueprint Walks with Kip
At The Biophilic Blueprint, we seek out voices like Kip’s because they remind us of the simple yet radical truth: that planning, design and even business can be enlivened by the wisdom of the land. His call for artistic flair and mythopoetic imagination in urban planning is not just about better cities—it is about better lives, grounded in rhythm, story and relationship with the wild.
Just as we sat by the river listening to kookaburras, pausing mid-thought, so too must our planning systems learn to pause and listen. Kip’s path from urban planning to bushwalking is a reminder that the future of our cities needs to be in sync with the streams, soils and birdsong.