Susannah Clement is now seeking participants for her study, which will look at how families make time for walking in their busy lives, why they think walking is important and what barriers may stop them from doing it more often.

"No one walks anywhere any more. So it'll be a provocative way to make people really think about what they're doing, and increase the walking they do in everyday life," she said.

"Walking is something that we can often take for granted, but is actually a very important way we come to know our neighbourhood, as well as being beneficial for our health."

Ms Clement will review two-week snapshots of what families get up to and interview them to find out how much walking they do, and any physical - or mental - obstacles they come across.

Study participants will be given GoPro video cameras to wear to compile where, when and how they go for a walk.

According to the National Heart Foundation, one-in-four Australian children are overweight or obese, while our kids rank worst in the world for overall physical activity with just two out of 10 meeting the national guidelines of 60 minutes each day.

"I just think for kids there's lots of screen time involved in their lives these days and, even though a lot of them are involved in organised sport, their lives are very much now scheduled - like they go to school, then they do this activity, then another activity - you think they're super active but they're not," Ms Clement said.

"So to promote walking as a way that they get around [would] really increase the amount of activity in everyday life."

Owner of Wollongong-based Alternative Fitness, Lenna Wingate, has worked with children for most of her 16-year health and fitness career, and feels walking should be the bare minimum of exercise.

"It should be second nature to them. They should be more active as a general family. You very rarely see [children] walking to and from school any more, or playing in the street."

Ms Clement is looking for about 60 Wollongong families to participate in the research, which can include carers and grandparents.

To get involved, email sc527@uowmail.edu.au.