About Me
My name is Luen Warneke and I'm 32 years old. I have been living in Townsville for most of my life. Townsville is in Northern Queensland, which is situated along the east coast of Australia, mid-way along the Great Barrier Reef but also nestled beside various stunning mountain ranges. For the past several years, I have been writing articles for the Wanderstories website. Wanderstories documents Townsville's - and the rest of Queensland's and the world's - natural landscapes (e.g., waterfalls, lookouts, mountains, etc.) and associated adventures (e.g., hiking, canyoning, rock climbing, bikepacking, packrafting, etc.) as well as adventure travel.
I am also a contributor to theCrag (ranked 19th in the world, 5th is australia, and first in Queensland), OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, TrailForks (first in Townsville), and many other community-driven websites as I have spent countless hours editing and contributing to these resources. I am the president of the Townsville Bushwalking Club and have also contributed to Townsville Bushwalking Club, Rockclimbers Association of North Queensland, and Townsville Rockwheelers Mountain Bike Club by leading club trips and, in the case of the Rockwheelers, maintaining trails. I also helped start Townsville Alive! which is a group to build community via active activities.
My professional career has taken me down the path of adventure guiding for local companies, such as Outer Limits Adventure. I currently work for the Mike Carney Group (Toyota, 4WD Central, etc) as a guide, planning adventures and creating films & lifestyle content.
While Wanderstories is a community and team effort, I personally have set and achieved goals over the years for numerous summits and first ascents and descents and for the past several years, I have been curating my love of the outdoors, adventure, and tropical North Queensland (and beyond) via Wanderstories. My most notable achievements to date have been the first ascent of the south peak of Mount Pieter Botte, the first free ascent of Mount Diamantina, the first descents of Crystal Canyon, Gold Canyon, and Waterview Canyon. Next year, I plan to achieve many more firsts and accomplish several other challenging adventure goals.
As of July 2021, our website receives over 30,000 unique visitors each month! Our readers come mostly from Townsville, Queensland, Australia but we also have a small following in the rest of Australia and the world. We have 1000+ website subscribers, and 5,000+ social media followers (combined across all channels).
I have a regular podcast segment, Take A Hike, with Hit with 103.1 Townsville radio, have been live on ABC North Queensland Radio several times [1], [2], a Face of Townsville with Community Information Centre Townsville, and a motivational speaker at a Pechakucha Night Townsville VOL. 30.
