Government to make Canberra the mountain biking capital with 'iconic' trail network

Jane Lloyd would love to see your smiling face anytime 😘🤗☺️xxxx

Sarah Powles it’ll bring a good return.

Sarah Powles have a look at how it has turned life around for aces like Derby in Tasmania. It brings tourism. 🤘

Dee Sis too true however if this plan does not factor in some manner of strong focus toward gravity or gravity XC riding similar to derby/ blue tier then people won’t come. We already have some excellent mtb venues and the already amazing centenary trail ringing Canberra. Putting another XC traverse across Canberra seems like duplication and will benefit those of us who live here rather than those who might travel here to ride. That said it is great to see investment and thought being done!

Leon Kotzur when can you get a hold of a bike?

I can ride now, have been out a couple of time to test it out, felt good

Nick Hepple brillant. No idea. I’ll try find a good one as aren’t any good ones out home!

Ah… in all that spare time… lol

The problem is the way Stromlo is managed. There is no board and direct involvement from the MTB community. So have flimflam.

Andrew Remely yeah fair call. I travel to canberra for work once a month for about a week and always bring my bike. I’m now of the opinion that stromlo sucks. No maintenance of trails, poor directional flow at most trail junctions. Complete lack of trail maps once you leave the car park. Most people ride the same loop, if you try and deviate from that you end up riding fire road to link back to anything. Don’t even get me started on the state of Vapour Trail! My local trails are illegal yet are maintained by many people and are in great shape. Nobody in canberra thinks to donate their own time because what you have has been given to you, not hard earned.

Reuben, I think you’ll find the amount invested at Stromlo was not all that large and the spend on Majura was tiny in contrast to what is invested elsewhere. I actually think they got a great result for the amount spent at Majura, though I agree that Stromlo is below par compared to destinations elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Stromlo and Majura represent a small part of what we have and of what we could have across the ACT.

Sarah Isabella yes he would! I will show him. I think that’s awesome.

The reason the mtb trail get resources is the riding community put in a massive amount volunteer time. I put in plenty building Stromlo. Never saw any horse riders helping out.
If the horse riders want more trails then you’ve got get off you ***^ and organise it.

Andrew Remely I am a key organsier of Scenic City, an annual horse riding event run from Stromlo forest, and we routinely work with SFP managwment on horse trails. As well as SC I ride and volunteer at many different local events around the ACT. I think you are a little misinformed 😐.

I doubt it very much Adeline. I believe the Canberra region has more than enough land to comfortably accommodate all recreation users peacefully.

My friends and I have been building mtb trails in the Canberra region in a volunteer capacity for over 20 years. We haven’t been given resources or funding to build trails – we’ve funded that ourselves (and on occasion with donation from individuals, event organisers and businesses who support our work). Over that time we’ve built a great deal of trail and helped elevate the profile of the region as a riding destination. We’ve worked with the land manager over many years, earned their trust and acceptance and enjoy access to land to build trail and that is greatly appreciated. Our activities haven’t displaced other user groups, in fact the trails we’ve built are regularly used by runners and orienteers and the surrounding roads continue to be used for car rally, motorcycle events, horse riders, dog sledding and the like, including for livestock agistment.

Unfortunately, in recent years we’ve also lost a great deal trail through harvesting which has diminished the ACT’s reputation as a riding destination and has affected the viability of major events. Redressing trail loss of this scale is important and hasn’t been been helped by ongoing low levels of funding for trail development. In contrast, many locations/regions across Australia are benefitting from major funding injections and are leading the way for attracting trail based recreation and the great tourism opportunities that flow from it.

It is our hope through this process of consultation and planning that the ACT Government will see the importance and urgency of investing significantly in trail development and new networks and elevate Canberra to the top-tier of destinations for mountain biking. Actions like this will attract events and create new business opportunities and – importantly for locals – make Canberra a more desirable place to live.

Alan Vogt great post.
You’ve done so much for trails in the region.

Well said Alan. I wish you were running this venture for us.

Exactly Victoria Edmonds 🙂 Just trying to point out that the ideal outcome is for all users to retain access for various uses.

Hear hear. Well said, Alan.

And Road bikes