Julia Zemiro is listing her must-haves for a long walk. “How about a bit of curiosity and non-judgement? Take that with you,” she says. “But, honestly, sunscreen, water, hat... I’ve always got burnt since moving to Australia from France at the age of four, so I’m an absolute vampire about the sun, but people don’t wear hats here in the middle of summer. It blows my tiny mind.”
The multi-talented Julia knows a thing or two about wearing many hats, both literally and figuratively. She is quite the expert on taking long scenic walks, too, with the second season of her iconic SBS TV show Great Australian Walks currently sauntering across our screens.
When Prevention chats to Julia over Zoom, she’s at her fab, feisty best, despite battling a bout of Covid, which is somewhat apt, as the Covid pandemic was influential in creating the concept for the first season of the show.
“When we could only do our five-kilometre walk [during lockdown], people explored their local areas more than they ever had,” recalls Julia, 57. “And after that, when we still couldn’t open the borders to the world, people started going to find places a little further afield. So [the show] was saying, ‘Don’t forget your own backyard; don’t forget what’s here.’”
While the pandemic also put the kibosh on filming any walks beyond the eastern seaboard in season one, the second instalment has seen the treks expand across Australia, from the red and rugged Cape to Cape track in southwest Western Australia, to South Australia’s Riesling Trail to the wondrous Uluru in the Northern Territory – Julia’s personal favourite of the walks she completed this time around.
“I kept thinking, if you were one of the first Australians and you’d been walking for miles in the desert, and then suddenly you saw this incredible rock, you’d be like, ‘Okay, this has to be magical, mystical, what does it mean?’” she says. “Uluru has this real pull to it. It’s strangely evocative and so stunning. You’re in the middle of nowhere, but you don’t feel alone at all; you feel very connected. And at night, those stars, what?! Nature’s drones!”
First Nations highlights
Along with the jaw-dropping scenery she encountered filming the show, Julia was also profoundly affected by the incredible people she met on the walks and the tales they had to tell. “We always have a First Nation story, a multicultural story, a colonial story and an environmental story – we hit those four beats,” she explains. “[The show’s production company] Mint Pictures really do find great talent to speak to and my gift, if I may say, is that I know how to get the best out of people and make them feel comfortable. I’m just lucky that I get to hear people’s disparate perspectives on life and that’s what I hope we can share with you.”
Experiencing Welcome to Country at each new place was also a highlight for Julia. “To stand there with a First Nations person on their land, and hear them say, ‘We’re here now on this country, while we’re here, can you do me no harm, country? And I’ll do you no harm?’” Julia shakes her head in wonder. “If we’d all been saying that to each other from day one, we’d all be a lot more integrated into nature and culture – and we might not be having to worry so much about climate change. So the walks remind you of the stuff you can lose and also remind you that, at the end of the day, nature will win over us when we’re gone. It’s humbling in that way.”
Julia has also been humbled by the feedback she receives from everyday Aussies watching the show. “So many people contact me on social media, saying ‘thank you for doing the walks I can no longer do’ – whether it’s age, disability or illness. I’m also hoping it encourages people who never walk to get out there.”
Getting hooked on hiking
While Julia says she’s always been a fan of walking (“I didn’t start driving until I was 35, so, yeah, what does that tell you?”), she admits her trips had previously been of a more urban and practical nature, rather than long, scenic explorations. However, now that she’s travelled that road, she professes: “I’ve got a bit hooked on this kind of thing now.”
Something she has appreciated more than ever is the benefits of walking on mental health. “There’s no doubt,” she says. “We know that now: ‘if in doubt, get out’. There’s nothing like walking to go, ‘look up, look out’. It takes you out of being in your own head all the time; it might just snap you out of a mood. Someone might say hello, [even just] the barista at the cafe and you just go somewhere else for a minute.”
She adds that even a short circuit breaker like that can bring some much-needed perspective and make any problems or anxieties seem less significant.
Julia also credits walking with helping her with her work and creativity. “If I have to write a speech for something or come up with material, I walk and I talk it into my phone,” she says. “The walking for me is thinking – I can’t sit in a room and do it. The ideas always bubble up while I’m walking. I’ll tape them and then come back and transcribe and work around it. I definitely recommend you try it.”
Walk, don’t run
Julia’s other key walking recommendation? Take your sweet time. “I’ve seen walkers and they’re raring to go and they’re like, ‘I’m gonna do this and see this… Whoa. It’s not a job. There is a slowness to the filming [of the show] and it’s deliberate, to remind you to slow down. That it isn’t just an A-to-B situation. Be curious.”
Julia has an added motivation for adopting a leisurely pace and taking in her surroundings consciously. “I think you’ll find I broke my ankle after the first walk in series one,” she says. While the accident – which didn’t occur while filming the show – was, of course, a huge nuisance that required postponing of the first season of walks, it also led to a very important discovery.
“I ended up getting a bone density scan and it turns out that I am osteopenic [having low bone density, often a precursor to osteoporosis],” she shares. “I was really quite miserable not being able to walk, and I thought, ‘Right, this is clear, mobility is important. If I can’t get around, I can see that’s going to annoy me.’
So, I started doing weight-bearing exercise; all that stuff we need to do as women for strength and maintaining bone health, especially now that I’m postmenopausal.” She laughs. “Best thing that’s ever happened – breaking my ankle at 55. I highly recommend it!”
Building character
From co-hosting Eurovision for many years, to acting in TV films and shows, to presenting TV series such as Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery and DNA Nation, Julia’s résumé is as diverse as it is long. When it comes to choosing a project, Julia says she always asks herself, “‘Will I be proud when this goes to air? Does it mean something?’ I’ve said no to quite a few things the past couple of years and it’s so great. It makes you value the ones you say yes to, and value your time and your energy.”
Along with Great Australian Walks, most recently this has meant rocking a power suit and sky-high hair in the much-awaited third season of ABC comedy series Fisk, created by and starring Julia’s good friend Kitty Flanagan. “It was an absolute joy going in there every day,” she says, excitedly getting up to show off her ‘Roz Gruber’ desk name plate.
She reveals viewers can look forward to “a lot of character journeys” in season three, as well as some hilarious guest stars. “That was a real highlight,” she says. “Just to be in the same room as them and watch them work. Some of them are character actors and you’d just be thinking, ‘You’re so good at comedy!’ It was like little masterclasses here and there. You will love it.”
Meanwhile, as the host of RocKwiz, which returned to TV screens on Foxtel last year after a six-year hiatus, Julia will be hitting the road from October to December for a 35-date live tour. “We’ve already added five more shows because we’ve sold out in a couple of places,” she says with pride. “That’s the quality of it.”
Finding your people
Julia knows the importance of picking good people to work with, another large part of her motivation when choosing new projects.
“I don’t want to work with people who are hard work for the sake of being hard work or who have egos,” she says. “Your work culture is so important.”
Julia extends that philosophy to all areas of her life, adding that it’s a message she tries to instil in her nieces and nephews. “Look for the people who make you feel good about yourself,” she says. “You’ll meet so many people in your life, but the ones that don’t make you feel good, whether it’s a partner or a friend, move away; it’s wasted time. There’s so many other people to be friends with. I wish I’d known that.”
Life advice from the one and only Julia Zemiro? We’ll take that any day.
Catch season two of Great Australian Walks on SBS On Demand Season three of Fisk is now on ABC iView.
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