The Warburton Mountain Bike Destination Project Information sessions in October 2018 on the 2nd stage in:
In the WMB Feasibility Study:
How likely is the second stage to follow the Warburton Mountain Bike Feasibility Study 2013?
The first stage of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination is out there for all to assess. Plans and descriptions are available on the council website http://www.rideyarraranges.com. It includes 165kms of trails on Mt. Tugwell, Mt. Little Joe and Mt Donna Buang.
Powelltown
It was announced that Powelltown will be part of the plans for Second Stage, with the Black Diamond Trail connecting with the Mt. Tugwell Trails and another trail connecting to Big Pat Creek’s ‘Walk into History’ carpark along an old tramline. Maps of this were displayed at the Project’s Information Session held at Powelltown in 2018 on this section of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination. The Powelltown Oval will be the local hub for the trails with plans for car parking and for access to the trails from there. A new Sports Complex for the local community could be used for the WMBD for its toilets and kiosk and a pergola area would have parking for mountain bikes. The oval could be taken over for events as the Black Diamond Trail is to be the centrepiece for Downhill Mountain Biking.
Big Pat’s Creek
The ‘Walk into History’ Carpark at Big Pat’s Creek will be a trailhead for the Waburton Mountain Bike Destination. A trailhead is a car park where mountain bikers can drive to and park. From the car park they are able to hop on their bike and connect to a mountain bike trail. In the plans displayed at the Powelltown Community Information Session there is a trail that will connect Big Pat’s Creek to Powelltown along an already existing tramways line.
And the rest . . .
But even with this addition this is not all that has been planned for the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination. The first stage of the WMBD including Mt. Tugwell, Mt. Little Joe and Mt Donna Buang and this second stage addition of Powelltown are all in the Warburton Mountain Bike Feasibility Study 2013 — but there is more:
The Redwood Forest
The Redwood Forest (also known as the Cement Creek Plantation) has a trail going right through the middle of it in the Feasibility Study and there is a plan to put a trail head there as well: a car park, a toilet block and signage. When the trail head goes in then three mountain bike trails will be added, linking the Redwood trailhead up to:
- Big Pat’s Creek Walk Into History car park
- O’Shannassy Aqueduct (Eastern Section)
- Warburton – creating a new path approximately following the highway to link up with the riverside path to Warburton Caravan Park and beyond to the Warburton Township
O’Shannassy Aqueduct (Eastern Section)
From here Mountain bikes can continue to the trails on the Aqueduct up behind Warburton where the Yuonga Road Car Park and the Dee Road Car Park are trailheads or travel down to the Redwoods (the Cement Creek Plantation) in Cement Creek Road, East Warburton.
How likely are future stages to follow the Warburton Mountain Bike Feasibility Study 2013?
If we can go by the first stage and the announcement of the Powelltown’s trails, the answer is very likely.
The difference between the First Stage Master Plan and the section of the original Warburton Mountain Bike Feasibility Study 2013 that covered Mt. Tugwell, Mt. Little Joe and Mt. Donna Buang is many added kilometres of trails. Nearly all proposals to use pre-existing walking and fire trails were abandoned replaced by single use Mountain Bike Trails (but often only to run along beside these pre-existing trails and often intersecting them – and although walkers will not be allowed on these mountain bike trails, mountain bikes will still be allowed to use most of the non mountain biking trails – and where they are walkers only trails, the mountain bikers use them anyway, endangering the life and limb of any walker on the trail).
The creation of single tracks dedicated to mountain bike use only was necessary to gain IMBA Gold Level as all trails must be properly constructed and single use to count towards the 160+kms of tracks required to gain this accreditation. Apart from that the 37km A K Drop from the top of Mount Donna Buang is an addition to the Feasibility Study (this trail has not been removed as a consequence of the EES process which found it undesirable). The use of the Back Stairs Track and the La La Falls Track have been removed and replaced with Trails that are further away and therefore do not interfere with them, however, we have had Mountain Bikers on the Backstairs Track now for nine years – they are not in a hurry to give it up despite a mountain bike trail being built parallel to it. This illegal track has been built where the downhill track will be placed in future, it is parallel to the Backstairs Track and intersects the Backstairs Track in three places. This new mountain bike trail will connect with planned parking at its base (as per the Warburton Urban Design Framework 2023) or alternatively the mountain bikes can connect to the RailTrail from here. An uphill track will be entered from the Rail Trail between Hooks Road and Warburton. These two trails, one up onto Mt. Little Joe and one coming down from it, means the Rail Trail will be swarming with Mountain Bikers in this section of it (the Council’s documentation predicts a tripling of bike traffic on the RailTrail at this point).
All in all, there are more trails than the Feasibility Study, not less. Other Mountain Bike Destinations around Australia continually add new trails. This constant expansion of mountain biking facilities is the norm, so why wouldn’t the Warburton Mountain Bike Project be the same considering they already have the plans for them?
Rethink Warburton Mountain Bike Destination 