Peter Hicks, the chairman of Sydney Anglican Property (SAP), has been a keen hiker for many years. He’s undertaken many long expeditions, including the Kokoda Trail, Annapurna Circuit and the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Now, in partnership with two close mates, he’s put his hiking boots to work in service of gospel ministry!
Peter loves how simple and focused hiking is. “It’s not complicated. You put one foot in front of the other,” Peter explains. “It makes you appreciate the things we have in life like running water and beds. You can get away from it all and appreciate God’s creation.”
Philip Reichardt’s involvement in hiking had been confined to shorter walks, albeit with an unfulfilled interest in undertaking longer hikes, until 2022, when Philip did his first hike with Peter on the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory. That was ten days of hiking, so it helped Philip know both that he could do a longer hike, and that he and Peter would get along well enough to still be friends at the end!
As well as being a musician who works with heritage pipe organs and conducts choirs, Philip has a professional background as an oil and gas engineer. This is how he got involved with SAP, through working on the project control groups, which track the progress of various projects and help with project management.
As well as his role of chairman over the last three years of SAP, Peter has also been involved with a number of church building projects over the years, including as a warden at St Thomas’ North Sydney and, now, at St Matthew’s Manly. He has also worked professionally in the building industry.
So in 2025, Peter and Philip found a way to combine their passion for supporting important Christian causes with their love of hiking. They decided to tackle the Heysen Trail, Australia’s longest dedicated walking trail that extends a whopping 1,200km from Cape Jervis on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges. They broke it into two stints, with the first in 2025 raising money for Anglicare.
For their second stint, completed earlier this year, they focused their fundraising efforts towards building new churches. “SAP is keen to build a new church once a year in the greenfield areas,” Peter explains. “The main impediment to that is raising enough funds.”
Box Hill was the next church on the list to be built, and it needed funds. “People are quite surprised at how much it costs to build a new church,” Peter says. “And these facilities are very much needed in our new suburbs. There’s very few community gathering places.”
So with their friend, Rod Haywood, round two on the Heysen Trail directed funding towards this new church at Box Hill. They emailed friends and explained that they were planning to walk 600km over 28 days, and asked for support and financial contributions towards their efforts.
Despite a lot of unseasonal wet weather, the hardy trio completed the hike in the 28 days planned. The three men walked through Wapma Thura Southern Flinders Ranges National Park, Mount Remarkable National Park, Mount Brown Conservation Park, The Dutchman’s Stern Conservation Park and Buckaringa Nature Reserve, culminating in Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park (Wilpena Pound) – a truly incredible journey.
The rain really surprised Philip. He had lived in Adelaide and other parts of South Australia previously, and was expecting dry terrain. But that was not what they found. “Lake Eyre is usually dry, but it’s now carrying the most water it has carried since about 1974,” Philip explains.
But Philip firmly believes that there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing and gear. “You do have to have good gear,” he says. “And our gear was tested a couple of times, particularly by the very strong rain and winds.”
Wilpena Pound, in the Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park was one of the highlights for Peter. A massive, natural bowl-shaped mountain amphitheatre, it is a major geological wonder of the world. It’s also very steep to walk! Philip also found the Wilpena Pound spectacular. “It did not disappoint!” He says. “It was terrific.”
Another highlight was seeing the golden spike in the Flinders Ranges, a special geological marker. There are only thirteen of these markers worldwide, and this is the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. “It’s a special little marking put in by geologists to show how old the earth is,” Peter explains. The golden spike officially defines the base of the Ediacaran Period.
But there were challenges as well. “You’re walking, but you’re also carrying all your food and camping equipment. I had to arrange the logistics of food parcels to send ahead of us, so every ten or so days we had to go into a town with a hotel where we had mailed our food ahead of us, special dehydrated food and things,” Peter recalls.
Being out in the middle of the outback also made Peter feel more keenly his dependence on God, and his own smallness in the face of the one who created all things. For Philip, the majestic geology was a reminder of God’s work and creative nature. “I feel so grateful we’ve got a God who is so artistic and provides us with such magnificent landscapes to enjoy,” he shares.
The money raised is now going towards getting the Box Hill Anglican congregation into their own building as soon as possible. Peter looks forward to seeing how the church and community will grow and flourish over the next few decades. The $14,000 raised will specifically fund a landscaped area with a playground, coffee cart and barbeque facilities, which would otherwise not have been able to be included in the plan and budget.
Infrastructure like this has been central to the early success of some other greenfield churches in suburbs where community infrastructure has not yet caught up with the growing population. In other words, when church is the only place for the kids to play or to get a coffee, then church rapidly becomes the heart of the community.
Philip hopes the space is enjoyed by the Box Hill church community, and that it is a practical tool for them in reaching out to the surrounding community. “We’re about reaching people for Christ,” Philip says. “If recreational equipment can be useful in that regard, I’m pleased.”
Peter hopes his hikes will also highlight the need to be proactive in raising funds for more new churches. He sees money given towards these properties as an investment that will be eternally impactful as it changes people’s lives and brings them to know Jesus.
