Alan Waddell - interview

At a puckish 94 years of age, Alan Waddell is a throwback to the days of gentlemanly charm. On the day he meets Time Out, it's the first in many weeks he hasn't been able to notch up his usual kilometres on the streets of Sydney because of agonising muscle pain in his right thigh. Yet he insists on taking part in a photo shoot at his Longueville home, and as he slowly makes his way outside he pauses under the headline of a framed Thai newspaper article celebrating his exploits: ‘Old Coot Walking'.

"I was always taught that it's ladies first," he says, chivalrously wavering on the top step. "And that you give up your seat on the bus."

Photo gallery
See our exclusive slideshow of Alan Waddell walking the streets of Sydney

Not that Alan often finds himself on a bus these days. At last count, he had walked every street in 280 Sydney suburbs, from Rose Bay to Regentville and beyond. Along the way, he has built a collection of more than 1000 photographs of the secrets concealed within Sydney's streets, which are all displayed on his popular website Walk Sydney's Streets.

"You've got to walk to find out how the people live," he says simply.

An only child, Alan was born in 1914 in Hurstville in Sydney's south-west. After finishing school in the midst of the Great Depression and qualifying as a chartered accountant, Alan married his wife Marjorie in 1942, the start of a love affair that lasted half a century. Amongst the many pictures on his website is one of Alan revisiting the house in Rose Bay where he and Marjorie first lived, standing on the staircase where
 they spent part of their honeymoon sheltering from attacks by a Japanese submarine in Sydney Harbour.

Once their three sons John, Graham and David had grown up, Alan and Marjorie began the trek of their lives, visiting 86 countries around the world. Striding across the majestic plains of Africa and meandering through the vibrant plazas of South America. Their travels piqued Alan's interest in learning how other people live.

"Europe of course is fascinating, but you get tired of just wandering around cities, you know," Alan says matter-of-factly. "We enjoyed getting out into the country, walking around and seeing how people lived."

Back home, Alan and Marjorie spent their weekends strolling around their local area. When Marjorie died at the end of 2002, shortly after their 60th wedding anniversary, Alan took up walking every day to continue the pastime he had enjoyed so much with his wife. He tired of local streets after a few months, so his son John drove him to nearby suburbs. Soon he was literally walking for his life when a vascular specialist told him he had aneurysms in both legs.

"He said, ‘you must walk every day, wet or fine, or you'll be in a wheelchair very soon'," Alan recalls. "A cardiac specialist said exactly the same thing, so for the last five and a half years I've taken the option of walking every day rather than the thought of sitting in a wheelchair."

As Alan completed his 50th suburb, an article appeared in the North Shore Times, and his media profile has since grown to include national and international newspapers, radio and television. His website gets hits from 169 different countries and more than 400 people have emailed to say that Alan has encouraged them to take up walking themselves.

Alan wears a pedometer when walking and, with the meticulousness of a born accountant, records each day's efforts by hand in ruler straight columns on small pieces of notepaper clipped together. He averages two and half kilometres a day and counts Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River and Watsons Bay on Sydney's eastern foreshore as some of his favourite areas to walk in.

According to Alan, getting off the main roads provides unique glimpses into Sydney's past. "You would never believe it but just 150 metres from Westfield [in Bondi Junction], there are rows of terraces built in the 1880s.

That's what you find if you walk around a suburb - you see so much that just driving through you wouldn't know existed." Nothing escapes Alan's keen eye as he ambles from suburb to suburb. He marvels over how much has changed in his hometown of Sydney in the last 93 years. He has particularly noticed there are few new churches and that the traditional corner shop and milk bar has died out.

Alan is incredulous at the impact his walking has had. In Glendenning near Blacktown, the local paper mentioned that Alan would be in the area and one lady kept her eye out for his distinctive red t-shirt. When he passed, she brought her children outside for a photograph with him. "The kids will perhaps be told in 10 years time ‘that's the old man who walked every street in Sydney' and they'll be famous just because they were in a photograph with me!"

Lifeline

1914 Born in Hurstville in Sydney's south-west
1932 Starts work as an accountant at Smith Johnson & Co.
1942 Marries Marjorie, honeymoons during submarine attack
2002 Takes up regular walking around his Longueville home.
2003 Begins travelling to other suburbs on mission to walk every Sydney street.
2007 Wins a NSW Government award for his work in promoting health & wellbeing.
2008 Reaches his 280th suburb in May.

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