29 April 2011

Here comes the Centenary Trail!

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Stanhope has announced that the increasingly leaky budget will bring us a $3.3m Centenary Trail.

“Our centenary will be a fantastic opportunity to show off our great city and there will be few better ways of doing this than through the Canberra Centenary Trail,” Mr Stanhope said.

“It will guide walkers and cyclists through urban and nearby rural areas incorporating a variety of iconic and lesser-known locations that tell the story of Canberra.”

The self-guided trail will start at Parliament House and loop around the ACT through locations including ANZAC Parade and the War Memorial, Parliament House, Lake Burley Griffin, Mount Ainslie, Mount Taylor, Red Hill, the National Arboretum Stromlo Forest Park and Mulligans Flat Sanctuary.

The Centenary Trail will see existing fire and walking trails merged with new trails. It is envisaged that 19km of new trails be constructed and 15km of existing ones upgraded.

A camping area on the southern side of the trail will be built with existing accommodation utilised along other points of the route.

Where the terrain allows, the trail will also include disability access and facilities and there will interpretive signing aimed at people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Mr Stanhope said people would also be able to access the information through a GPS-based, smart phone application that could allow users to access videos, photographs, music and audio narration tailored to their interests.

The Budget funding follows a $100,000 study on the feasibility of the commemorative trail which recommended either a seven-day, 129km journey for walkers or a three-day, 133km ride for cyclists.

We’re quite looking forward to doing it!

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Pandy said :

Anyone remembeer the Bicentenial Trail? Thought not.

I use it all the time. It’s great.

Pandy said :

Anyone remembeer the Bicentenial Trail? Thought not.

Maybe not if you are sedentary, however it is used maintained and protected by the horsey crowd, bike riders and walkers

Anyone remembeer the Bicentenial Trail? Thought not.

Keijidosha said :

I did understand that the trail would incorporate existing paths, however the media release is about announcing a 130km trail that takes days to complete, and my point was that it would be as appealing to the average Canberran as cold porridge. How many people would actually be interested in walking/riding the equivalent distance of a round trip to Yass? I’d wager not many, but more power to those who would.

I must of missed the bit about it being compulsory to do the whole 130km if someone was interested in using the trail. I would have thought that it would be ok to only use the sections of the trail someone was interested in, in the same way someone now doesn’t have to ride every bike path.

The kml file fills in a few blanks, so thank you for that. I did understand that the trail would incorporate existing paths, however the media release is about announcing a 130km trail that takes days to complete, and my point was that it would be as appealing to the average Canberran as cold porridge. How many people would actually be interested in walking/riding the equivalent distance of a round trip to Yass? I’d wager not many, but more power to those who would.

Interestingly though, if this 13 million dollar project uses ~110km of existing paths, how do you distinguish it from the existing program of routine path maintanence? The answer: A media release. 😉

Keijidosha said :

I’m in favour of public works that encourage people to engage in physical activity, but at 130km long this trail is likely to attract a slight minority.

Did you even read the post? More than half of the route is existing trails around highly populated areas of Canberra, which people use every day. New and better signed trails for riding and walking will be great.

One place you can find discussion here, along with a copy of the report, and with a handy KMZ of the track.
http://www.theberm.com.au/forum/topics/new-trail-dedicated-to

I’m in favour of public works that encourage people to engage in physical activity, but at 130km long this trail is likely to attract a slight minority. Unless of course there are plans for a drive-thru (sic) option for the McFatties and those people who will drive around a carpark for half an hour to get a spot 15 metres closer to the door.

That looks amazing!!

Jeebers wept…

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