DURING their long careers as geologists, Phil and Cressida Gilmore knew how to look beneath the surface to find riches.
Now the Gilmores are helping people discover the treasures right in front of them.
They have founded a company called Geotrail and Nature Tours, to guide visitors and locals into coastal and bush wonderlands in the heart of Newcastle.
"As geologists we have knowledge and ability to read a landscape," Phil Gilmore said. "We see that interaction of rocks and soils, and therefore, the plants that grow and the animals that rely on those plants, and then the Aboriginal and European use of resources.
"I feel like we have stories to tell relating to all of those factors."
The couple run two walking tours, a 5-kilometre journey along the Newcastle Coastal Geotrail, from Nobbys Beach to the Bogey Hole, and a 7.5-kilometre amble through the Glenrock State Conservation Area.
The idea of a walking tour company grew from a geology conference in Newcastle in 2014, when the Gilmores were asked to show the visitors the sights - and the rocks.
Phil Gilmore also helped open more eyes to what was along the city's edge, being the lead author of the Newcastle Coastal Geotrail brochure.
While the coastal walk had soared in popularity, many using it didn't know the stories right before them.
"I feel like they're missing out on the stories of not just the rock but the birds, for example, that migrate from King Island to Siberia and roost at Newcastle Baths to fatten up for the journey," he said.
"If we've got this knowledge, it just feels wrong not to share it."
The Newcastle Herald joined the Glenrock Discovery Tour, heading from a street in Kahibah into "the almost pristine forest", as Phil Gilmore described it.
"There aren't too many major cities anywhere in the world where you can walk from the urban environment straight into the bush and be in a rainforest gully," he said.
For Phil Gilmore, the walk in Glenrock is a journey into his childhood. He grew up at Charlestown, and Glenrock was his playground, when the Fernleigh Track was still a working rail line.
"I remember as a kid riding over the sleepers and hiding in the tunnels as a train went past," he said at the site of the former Kahibah rail platform.
The tour follows a little of the Great Northern Walk and the Fernleigh Track before descending into the Glenrock State Conservation Area on the Yuelarbah Track, which Cressida Gilmore explained meant "place of many footsteps".
"So it's a good place to enter," she said.
The walk is millions of years in the making, as the couple tap into their knowledge of geology to describe the rocks and their formation.
Following Flaggy Creek towards Glenrock Lagoon, the tour leaders explained the name came from the "natural flagstone effect" in the rock platforms along the waterway.
The Gilmores also have extensive knowledge of the habitats the group walks through.
Cressida Gilmore explained that in Glenrock there were about 31 different types of reptiles - "I saw a beautiful green tree snake beside the track recently" - and about 130 bird species.
"We're so lucky to have the variety we have," she said, adding that exploring the local environment had become a passion for her.
"You just feel like you're away from the day-to-day when you're in here, but it's so accessible."
As he listened to the Gilmores describe a native plant, friend and walker Shaun Ayshford said, "This is just like a David Attenborough series."
The Glenrock tour follows the reminders of those before them. In showing pieces of the hardened ancient volcanic ash called tuff, Phil Gilmore said this was used by the Awabakal people in tool making.
He also explained the Awabakal used coal as a fuel, long before the Europeans arrived to mine it.
Hidden in the bush are the remnants of agriculture, including the site of an old banana plantation, and of mining. The original Burwood Colliery began operating in the valley beside the lagoon in the mid 1800s, with the coal hauled out by train along the edge of the beach.
Walkers make their way through a rock cutting, known as the Ziggy Track, which was hewn by miners in the late 19th century.
Coal brought Europeans into Glenrock, but it also helped save the area as bushland, according to Mr Gilmore.
"If it wasn't for the coal reserves it probably would have become housing estates long ago," he said.
During the tour, there are also views down the valley to the lagoon from Leichhardt's Lookout, named after the Prussian explorer who was entranced by the area in 1842, and along the coastline.
Hunter tourism leader Will Creedon said tours such as these broadened, and changed, people's views of Newcastle as a destination.
"This is an opportunity to show how beautiful our coastline and bush are in a curated, modern way," Mr Creedon said.
With more than 40 per cent of visitors in the city to see friends and relatives, the tour operators and Mr Creedon said it was also important for locals to know what was in their backyard, to spread the word.
The impact of COVID, with the travel restrictions, has also played a part in people seeing Newcastle as a place to visit.
"I think Newcastle was discovered during the pandemic," Mr Creedon said, adding that the city would continue to be discovered and explored.
The Gilmores agreed COVID had encouraged people to explore their own area, and that could be good for walking tours.
"Hopefully people are curious and want to learn a bit more about what they're experiencing," Mr Gilmore said.
"It's got so much to offer," said Melbourne-born Mrs Gilmore of Newcastle. "It's just there below the surface, if you scratch around a bit."
Read more: Exploring Glenrock - a green gem set in the city
