Published on Thursday, 21 May 2020 at 11:02:53 AM

The Shire received some a lovely email from Mr & Mrs Van Elteren from Belgium who when passing through our region last year stumbled across the Boot Mile on Mt Walker Road. 

“Along the Mt Walker Road near Narembeen we saw something special.  There was a long stretch of road where many, many hundreds of shoes were hanging on barbed wire.”

The shoes/boots intrigued Mr & Mrs Van Elteren, they wanted to know why the shoes were hung along this fence, especially THERE!  They thought it was a special phenomenon! Upon receiving this email, the Shire of Narembeen responded to Mr & Mrs Van Elteren with some information on this colourful display on the Mt Walker Road.  The Van Elteren’s were advised that the Boot Mile was the action of local semi-retired farmers Ross & Helen Fidge who after a trip to the US saw something similar there and thought it would be an interesting sight on the Mt Walker Road for passing tourists. Mr & Mrs Van Elteren were delighted to receive the Shire’s email:-

‘We could not have dreamed that we would get a response to our email so quickly and the mystery of that shoe fence was cleared up for us”.

Mr & Mrs Van Elteren thought it was a special story and special the actions of Mr & Mrs Fidge to create their own Boot Mile in Western Australia. The Van Elteren’s were so impressed with the Narembeen Boot Mile, they are thinking of creating their own Boot Mile in Belgium! Mr & Mrs Van Elteren are thrilled that they now know the story behind the origin of Narembeen’s Boot Mile. Mrs Van Elteren commented that unfortunately there will be no travel for them this year due to COVID-19, a virus that has turned the world upside down and with Belgium being still in lock down, she hopes to one day return to Narembeen.

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