June knows a bit about endurance and walking. When the tiny nation of Timor Leste emerged from years of occupation and a short but brutal conflict with Indonesia, June saw the suffering of the people and headed to East Timor.

“I was in Timor for three years working as a volunteer mainly with children in orphanages and women, but also in the prisons with the male prisoners,” said June. “Just seeing the devastation, the hardship and the trauma and stresses those children in particular went through over there – I had to act.”

June came back and saw what had happened to the Great Barrier Reef.

“This is like a war in our own country,” she says. “It will devastate our country. As our land is destroyed that grows the food and maybe our water could be contaminated - and then there’s the real threat of losing the Great Barrier Reef.”

She has a plan.

“I intend walking from Cairns to Gladstone with as many people as I can. I would like to have hundreds and hundreds of people come along with us. It’s an awareness raising walk to highlight the coal expansion and to show the damage that it will cause to our Reef if it goes ahead. Also we want to meet the communities along the way, to talk to them, to listen to them and hear their concerns and for us to share our experiences along that walk.”

Please join June in June 2013. As she says, “Come along and join us. Our motto is Every Step Counts. Whether it’s one hour, one day, one week or the whole way – come and join us.”