By Callum Ludwig
Opinions have been divided over plans to create the Yarra Ranges Mountain Bike Destination project through the Yarra Ranges National Park and surrounding state forest.
The National Parks Australia Council (NPAC) and Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) have indicated they are against parts of the project which would see development in national parks.
Mountain biking groups such as Yarra Ranges Mountain Bikers are in support of the project however, President Andrew Howieson wants those against to know mountain bikers do not want trails that aren’t environmentally friendly to protected areas.
“I can’t stress enough how much I want to work with them, not as opposition. We’ve got the same interest, we want to preserve and enjoy the Australian environment,” he said.
“You only need to look at Tasmania to see the mountain bikers, petitioning and protesting against stopping logging down there.”
Mr Howieson was referring to the protests in the north-eastern town Derby in Tasmania, a prominent mountain biking location recently slated for logging projects.
VNPA proposed that if the project was successful, it would like the 22 kilometres of the trail that intersects the Yarra Ranges National Park to be scrapped.
Mr Howieson said he and other mountain bikers want to be able to enjoy the national park just as much as those who hike or walk it on hiking trails, but would be happy for the trail to stick to state forest if the environmental impacts were too devastating.
“If the data comes back and says the Leadbeater’s Possum is going to become extinct or has a very high chance of extinction if you build this trail, how can you go out and ride that and still enjoy it with that in the back of your mind?” he said.
“If they turn around and say that you can’t have the trail in the national park, but you can in the state park, we’re wholeheartedly behind that and that’s still a positive result.”
For Mr Howieson, he believes more trails are needed to meet the growing demand, as the number of participants skyrocketed over the past couple of years from residents seeking exercise and entertainment options during Covid-19 lockdowns.
“Nowadays there are two to three times the amount of people that are cycling than there was beforehand. The sport has really bad growing pains at the moment, there are so many people taking up the sport, and a lack of infrastructure available,” he said.
“To compare, if the number of people that wanted to play cricket doubled, and the number of cricket fields available halved, you’d see parks where people want to go and have a picnic overrun by people wanting to play cricket. People would start getting cricket balls hit through their picnics and that’s what’s happening with mountain biking.”
Mountain bike trails in Silvan and Lysterfield, the nearest for Yarra Ranges residents at current, have been closed for almost a year following damage caused by the June 2021 storms.
A decision as to whether the Yarra Ranges Mountain Bike Destination is set to go ahead in its current form is believed to be made in the next couple of months, subject to the research completed for a mandatory environmental effects statement.
