Clean those boots

Author: Glenn Leiper

Published: Journal June 2021

For all the decades I’ve been bushwalking, I can’t remember ever having muddy boots so often as in the past five months (December 2020 to April 2021). After each walk my boots seem to have doubled in weight with all the caked-on mud they’ve
accumulated during the day. At day’s end, depending on the amount and state of the mud, I either hose and scrub the really wet stuff off, or scratch off the dried mud and then scrub with a scrubbing brush. But is this good enough?

With soil pathogens such as the phytophthora fungus occurring more frequently throughout Australia in recent years and causing dieback in some areas such as Western Australia, and state and federal governments at the moment encouraging us to spend locally on stay-at-home holiday tourist options, it’s important that we don’t contribute to the problem of spreading these microscopic wrecking balls. Practising good hygiene with regards to our management and care of our boots
is therefore a 'no-brainer'.

In recent years, we’ve seen increased installations of shoe sterilisation stations at entrances to national parks and state forests, complete with scrubbing bristles and pumpaction sprays. (They were installed as far back as 2013 across the Gondwana World Heritage Area estate in Queensland.) But I think we need to do more personally.

Obviously, we should try to avoid any muddy areas during our bushwalks as phytophthora thrives in these conditions, and staying on tracks provided is also good sense. Taking heed of any signage or website information alerting us to the presence of dieback or phytophthora is also a sensible idea. But can we do something about our footwear to ensure we’re not carrying pathogens even after scrubbing and drying?

I jumped online to see if there are any suggestions out there and came across a great website of the Perth Bushwalkers Club. They recommend after cleaning your boots, that you give them a good spray using a spray bottle with a mix of 70% methylated spirits and 30% tap water. Follow this up with a good day of sundrying and your boots will be in a much cleaner state. This is what I’ve been doing after each bushwalk and I’m feeling a bit more satisfied that I’m not transferring any unwanted pathogens from place to place.

Another excellent but more expensive ($130) option is what QPWS officers use. It’s a veterinary grade disinfectant called F10, that is diluted at the rate of 1 ml per litre of water.

For the past 12 months or more, we’ve been getting used to the idea of wearing masks to stop the spread of the covid virus, but I think we also need to consider what we do with the other end of our bodies – our feet, and the footwear that covers and protects them. As Nancy Sinatra sang back in the 60s, “these boots were made for walking”, but let’s make sure that our walking leaves behind only footprints and not dangerous pathogens that’ll destroy what we came to enjoy.