Paddy Palin

National Parks were dear to the heart of pioneering adventurer Paddy Pallin, and on Wednesday a bust of the well-known outdoorsman was installed outside the visitor centre in Jindabyne.

National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Acting Visitor Centre Manager Lenore Moberget said Paddy Pallin embodied the Australian love of National Parks, and it was an honour to have the bust installed at Jindabyne.

"Frank Austin Pallin, better known as Paddy, encouraged the public to explore parks responsibly and enthusiastically, sentiments shared by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

"This bust of Paddy Pallin, sculpted by the late artist John Dowie, was originally installed at Perisher Valley in the ski tube mezzanine, but the Pallin family asked it be relocated to a more appropriate location where more visitors could enjoy it.

"The bust had been in place for less than an hour and its setting wasn't even dry when two visitors came and told NPWS staff that it was lovely to see Paddy Pallin's monument shifted to a more prominent location.

"Today Paddy Pallin is known to nearly every bushwalker and outdoor adventurer for his shops, but here in the Snowy Mountains many of us also remember the man who embodied a spirit of adventure and who loved nothing better than being out in the bush.

"Paddy's work with conservation groups, the Scouts and huts in Kosciuszko National Park meant many were and still are inspired to enjoy the wilderness," Ms Moberget said.

The Pallin family say they are delighted the bust of Paddy is now more closely associated with the enjoyment of the outdoors.

"We're especially pleased the bust is associated with national parks, the reason Paddy set up the Paddy Pallin business in the first place," son Robert and his wife Nancy Pallin said.

"Our son Tim Pallin, the current managing director of the Paddy Pallin stores, is also pleased to see Paddy in a new and more appropriate place," Robert and Nancy said.

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The sculpted bust features a quote by Paddy Pallin, who lived from 1900 to 1991:

"I have never strived to go highest or quickest or farthest nor was I ever particularly anxious to be the first, although this has sometimes been achieved by accident. I just sought to do the things my inner most self has craved to do."