About

About the GTA

The Glenrock Trail Alliance (GTA) is a volunteer driven group that was formed in November of 2004 with the aim of giving the mountainbike community in Glenrock a voice and a means to communicate amongst each other while presenting a single unified voice to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) as land manager and custodian of the little patch of land we love so much called the Glenrock State Conservation Area.

This formation of the GTA was prompted by some throw away comments by some NPWS staff 18 months earlier and the open dialogue that flowed from it. We have aimed to not only advocate for the continued use of Glenrock by Mountain bike, but to also educate the land manager on what we are really about and how trails can be made to be sustainable if the will is there.

Our ultimate aim is to see a sustainable and enjoyable network of single trail not only legalised, but also maintained in a sustainable manner, within the park. We believe this can only be done through an ongoing open working relationship with the NPWS.

The GTA welcomes the input, feedback and even constructive criticism from users of the park and hopes that other land managers will view our achievements and collaboration with the NPWS as best practice in the sustainable management of Mountain Biking in NSW.


This is the history up to 2015 point as recorded on our old GTA website by Lenny Allen.

In December 2015 Lenny left the GTA to pursue other endeavors.

Many thanks to Lenny for all the hard work.

GTA History

This covers nearly 20 years so be warned - it's a lengthy read

2003

Early 2003 – Comments from Park Staff that “you guys won’t be in here much longer” were made to Lenny, prompting discussions to start with NPWS about their intentions.

2004

18th Nov 2004 – GTA Launched with online forum. Intent of the GTA was to give the MTB community of Glenrock a voice while also providing a space for riders to discuss issues and be informed of the progress of the fight.

10th December 2004 – Volunteer Trail Maintenance first discussed with NPWS.

2005

2nd Feb 2005 – Mapping of Glenrock undertaken with NPWS and the GTA.

12th Feb 2005 - Mick steps up and joins the GTA after having his own discussions with the NPWS over the preceding 5 months.

17th April 2005 – Rock at the top of the trail feature on BJ’s removed and the line began to degrade (just threw that in as 5 years on we were finally able to fix it)

11th April 2005 – GTA advised volunteer maintenance will need to wait until an Access Strategy is complete.

11th August 2005 – Meeting held with NPWS, Matthew Morris (state Member for Charlestown) to discuss mountainbiking in Glenrock.

2006

March 2006 – Signs erected around surfers walk by NPWS warning of fines and jail terms in response to trail proliferation in the area.

3rd May 2006 – NPWS issue a press release regarding illegal trail construction in response to recent trail construction in the park.

22nd May 2006 – 60+ riders meet at Cardiff RSL to discuss the Mountain Bike communities concerns about Glenrock and its future.

25th June 2006 – NPWS host a community forum to discuss the parks use by various user groups. MTB was very well represented in this forum. Lenny Allen (Sammydog) and Mick Plummer (EMPY) were elected as Mountain Bike representatives to the Glenrock Consultative Committee in planning the draft POM.

July 2006 – GTA fight reported on in AMB (Australian MTB magazine)

22nd September 2006 – Consultative Committee meets for the first time.

22nd November 2006 – NPWS install the trail head noticeboard for the use of the MTB community.

28th November 2006 – GTA present Mountainbike POM proposals to the NPWS

14th December 2006 – Indicated that the Royal National Park only has 6km’s of single-track trail in a National Park and that Glenrock may not contain any more.

2007

24th April 2007 – Meeting with NPWS (Lenny and Mick) to try and get some of the “contentious” trails reinstated. These include BJ’s. High Roller, Seussland and Shaft. Discussion also held around Surfers walk and the Scout Camp Ridge.

1st June 2007 – Meeting with GTA, NPWS and Heritage Reps to discuss shaft and Lower Kenny Trails. Shaft and Seuss Land confirmed as being back on the table.

8th June 2007 – The idea of constructing new single trail on the landfill site is raised with NPWS.

4th September 2007 – No bike zone renamed “conservation zone”.

25th October 2007 – NPWS approach Glen Jacobs and World Trail.

26th October 2007 – NBN run a news story on mtb in Glenrock and the POM. EMPY interviewed.

2008

2nd Feb 2008 – World Trail begin a Trail Audit of Glenrock.

March 2008 – Local NPWS staff attend the IMBA tracks and trail conference in Brisbane

15th August 2008 – World Trail report delivered.

7th October 2007 – GTA meet with NPWS to discuss Baileys Swamp

7th November 2008 – After consultation with the GTA, the NPWS begin works on Baileys Swamp to make it an all weather section of trail.

2009

16th Feb 2009 – Draft POM officially launched.

March 2009 – World Trail undertake works on Twisties and Dip, BJ’s, Mud Jump and Second Quarry.

14th March 2009 – NPWS hold meetings at Gun Club to discuss issues and the POM with the mtb community,

21st March 2009 – World Trail train volunteers on trail maintenance.

April 2009 – Mountainbike Australia publish a story on Glenrock. Sammy’s ugly mug published.

1st June 2009 – POM Submissions Close.

29th June 2009 – GTA made aware of complaints against MTB riders crushing reptiles.

6th October 2009 – NPWS tidy up BJ’s in preparation of a visit by the NPA.

27th Dec 2009 – GTA starts Facebook page to reach more people.

2010

6th February 2010 – First volunteer maintenance day.

April, 2010 – IMBA visit Glenrock

5th May 2010 – Glenrock article on the IMBA Australia website

December 2010 - Glenrock POM adopted

2011

29th January 2011 - GTA begins work on Double Barrel (previously known as Upper Jumping the Gun)

3rd May 2011 - World Trail Visit for 3 weeks and rework Shaft, Seuss Land, Snakes and Ladders, Buckshot and the Tip.

7th May 2011 - GTA tree planting and weed pulling day on the newly renamed "Double Barrel" trail. Upwards of 30 riders help the NPWS and Trees in Newcastle plant trees and remove weeds on the trail corridor.

18th June 2011 - GTA commence works on the construction of "The Chute" a-line on Kenny's trail. Rock is hauled manually from the Pacific Highway to make this happen.

10th August 2011 - Trail Head signage installed at four locations. The main sign at Gun Club Road, with smaller trail head signs in Bailey's Precinct, Yuelarbah Carpark and off Fernleigh Track.

27th September - Installation of the directional Totem Poles begins, completed in the second week of October.

15th October 2011 - Official Opening of the Glenrock Trails along with the NPWS Family Fun Day and GTA's hosting of the first mtb race in Glenrock, the "Glenrock and Roll Hillclimb Timetrial", contested by over 50 riders.

2012

12 February 2012 - NPWS advise of southern trail closures to begin inline with the POM.

15th February 2012 - GTA and Glenrock make NBN news again on the issue of DH trail closures.

7th April 2012 - NPWS and GTA discuss continuing issue of riders descending Snakes and Ladders. BJ's slated for temporary closure to allow machine work to finish off the trail.

4th July 2012 - BJ's trail reopened following machine work and GTA volunteer days.

17th August 2012 - Glenrock receives a CMA grant to fund works on Grass Tree and Shaft.

5th September 2012 - Redevelopment Plans for Grasstree posted for comment and feedback.

11th September 2012 - Night riding in Glenrock featured on NBN news.

2nd November 2012 - Grass Tree Works begin including direction change.

5th December 2012 - NPWS purchase a power carrier for the use of the GTA.

9th December 2012 - NWPS/GTA christmas party on the trails.

14th December 2012 - Grasstree climb work begins.

2013

3rd February 2013 - Planning begins for a rider forum with NPWS and a descending trail.

15th March 2013 - Machine work on shaft begins.

June 2013 - Rider forum held with NPWS.

1st September 2013 - Results of GTA rider survey published. 242 riders participated.

4th September 2013 - Rider Meeting to discuss GTA

2014

September 2014 - GTA Incorporated

29th September 2014 - First GTA Committee Meeting

11th October 2014 - Kenny's Rut bypassed

13th October 2014 - GTA Feature on 1233ABC's Hunter A-Z

- - -

2015 and on - From old GTA website


During 2015 we tried different models for our Incorporated Group including affiliation with MTBA and formation of a small MTB race club but it was found to be cost prohibitive.

The biggest problem being insurance. Normally club membership comes at a cost and for MTB you would probably have a race license so insurance would be provided under that.

Because we’re not a ‘club’ holding events as such, our volunteers don’t have insurance. In order to provide that we would have to charge people for the privilege of coming along and maintaining trails – Not the best drawcard!

In 2016 we ceased operating as an Incorporated Group.

We worked hard with the NPWS to implement a system where we worked as individual volunteers to the NPWS and were covered by their insurance. Mick Plummer worked as a liaison to the NPWS and filled out paper forms and records of each volunteer day. Time consuming but it meant we could work and we had some very productive days through that period.

This system has since been implemented for all National Parks and Wildlife Service volunteers across NSW and in 2021 became available as an app. Unfortunately very little volunteering was carried out that year due to Covid-19.


Mick Plummer’s post on GTA website;


Glenrock 2016


So quite a lot has been happening really with the NPWS now seeming to want to move forward with MTB's in Glenrock. It's been a long road but they now are accepting a lot of the ideas that we have been pushing from the start.


Plan of Management Amendment

The NPWS are now keen to implement an amendment to the PoM that would include some latitude for trail rebuilds outside of the existing trail corridors.

They are also looking at the options available for trails in the south and access to Dudley beach area.


World Trail - Concept Plan

The NPWS have commissioned World Trail to conduct a feasibility study for MTB’s in Glenrock and to develop a Concept Plan to identify options for improvement of the MTB trail network in the north as well as the access to the south, ie; Bus Stop and Dudley Beach.

This document is meant to support and explain the need for the PoM amendment.

NPWS are open to at least looking at the best available options and have already accepted that some new sections of trail will be need to be built.

So far this is just a plan and certainly doesn’t indicate that the NPWS have the funding or resources to proceed with any of it, but they will use the document to attract funding for planned work.

This looks way better than just trying to fund general MTB trails.

Also if the PoM amendment proceeds it will allow for more flexibility in the work that we do as volunteers and in conjunction with the NPWS.

They are hoping to have something back by the 15th of April


Kenny's Chute

The NPWS have enough money in the budget to do some MTB trail work and have offered to rebuild the Kenny's Chute area. They are proposing that we use some recycled power poles to build a huge ‘retaining wall’ like set of steps that will mostly replace the existing rock armouring.

There is no plan drawn up for this work as the NPWS field officers and myself agree that the work will be subject-to-change as we start to dig and depending on what we find

We should also be able to extend the Chute itself to provide a better entry and exit as well as finish off the new alternate line now that it has partly ridden in.

This work is scheduled for early April with the follow-up and hand-tool work to be done by the GTA volunteers on Saturday the 16th of April.

So Saturday 16th of April will be our next build day and we are hoping it will be a big one.

The NPWS will be putting on a BBQ lunch and supplying drinks. There will be an advertised day in the calendar so please check that out and indicate if you can attend at the bottom of the page.

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Other trail work

‘BJ's’ needs to be rebuilt but we are hoping this time to build it as a true 'Black Diamond' level trail and so retain some of the difficult features that have evolved ATM but in a sustainable way.

This will most likely involve more rock armouring.

If we can't attract NPWS funding then this work may need to be done over a series of volunteer work days.

‘It Happens’ needs work but may be subject to a re-design depending what comes out of the concept plan and PoM amendment.

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GTA Club

The GTA club has folded, for the time being at least. There just hasn't been the interest needed to run racing in Glenrock ourselves.

There are other parties and promoters wanting to run events and most are keen to see the GTA involved in some way and to promote a good will towards us.

The volunteer group will continue to run as usual under the NPWS.

- - -


2016 - 2020

2020 rolled around and we weren’t able to do any volunteer maintenance at all due to Covid 19 pandemic and things were very quiet.


This is from Mick Plummer’s April '20 FB post at the time which sums up the period from 2016 – 2020.


The past year has been a very difficult time for the Glenrock Trail Alliance and our attempts to improve and develop the trail network within the park.

After showing so much promise things have pretty much gone backwards for us.

The History;

Back in 2016 the National Parks and Wildlife Service through discussions with the GTA agreed to proceed with some development of the MTB trails. The NPWS understood the amount of use the park was getting and believed the way forward was formalise the proposal and create a ‘Grand Plan’ document that would outline what was needed and show what could be achieved.

This glossy document would then be used to apply for funding as an exciting new project not just a continuation of what we already have.

The NPWS commissioned World Trail, famous MTB trail building company headed up by Glenn Jacobs. WT had previously done building work within the park and held training days for volunteer trail builders, NPWS were comfortable using them as they had runs on the board.

World Trail went about doing consultation with the local user group and many of you would have attended meetings and drop-in sessions around the park.

By the middle of that year World Trail had come back with a draft version of the “Glenrock SCA Mountain Bike Trail Concept Plan”.

Unfortunately NPWS had not really given them a very specific brief that outlined the restrictions and issues involved – areas of threatened flora and fauna, Indigenous and settlement cultural heritage pre-disturbance and other user groups. So World Trail thought they had a blank canvas and they went for it.

This meant that despite the plan looking really exciting for the MTB riders it didn’t stand a chance of getting through NPWS and public consultation.

Worse to that it would probably have drawn a enough opposition from the environmentalists and other groups to bring the whole MTB usage under scrutiny.

Quite wisely the NPWS decided not to allow it to go public.

They went back to World Trail and asked for a review but even with some changes and to-and-fro the plan still didn’t meet the restrictions and pretty soon the NPWS ran out of money. At this stage with other internal problems the unfinished Plan got shelved.

Part 2

So at this point we had what was becoming a very familiar situation – NPWS being a State Gov body had no funding and MTB wasn’t getting the attention it deserves. Like a lot of things these days it all came down to money and we had none.

Even to keep the Glenrock Trail Alliance functioning as an Incorporated Group costs money. To run a bank account, accept donations and pay all the fees takes money and time so we had been relegated to just running as a volunteer group operating under the NPWS, at least that way we were covered by their insurance and didn’t have to ask members to pay for the privilege of coming to a build day.

This had become a very frustrating. We could continue doing what we had been doing – repair and maintenance, but the user group had grown out-of-hand. MTB was becoming more popular, the NPWS were touting Glenrock as one of “Five iconic MTB destinations” on their website. There’s no way that sort of infrastructure should be maintained by a group of volunteers!

I found myself pushing harder at the NPWS to get it together, get the MTB plan completed and get some sort of re-occurring maintenance budget in place.

There was a lot of positivity within the agency around the whole project and most of the talk was encouraging but still so very slow moving and still the same bottom line – money.

It was about this time that we got a whole new injection of enthusiasm in the form of a group, including some local business owners and State Gov officers (acting privately) who contacted me wanting to make this all happen.

We formed a new group, you’ve probably heard of, called ‘Glenrock MTB Park’.

We began to publicise the idea of developing Glenrock and exploring avenues for lobbing and applying for funding.

We met with the NPWS management and discussed what was needed to allow donations and funding to be channelled directly into the one project. Believe it or not this was so difficult. NPWS didn’t really have a model for this so we had to get them keen enough to develop one. They weren’t eligible for grant funding from another State Gov department themselves, but G MTB Park was and they would allow us to contract the work in conjunction with NPWS. Fantastic!

Turns out this wasn’t even the hardest part.

Funding for the entire project was totally out of reach so we looked for projects that could be done as stand-alone but still compliment the overall plan. We decided on the Pump and Jump pocket park that you would have seen publicised, to be built in the lower quarry, below Six Shooter.

We managed to get Synergy Trails interested in the project and they produced a desktop plan with enough detail for a grant application.

Great! We had a project, a plan, an agreement with the NPWS and a very really shot at some funding.

To find out what happened next and save my time google ‘Sports Rorts’.

Not just once but twice we were completely overlooked mostly for political reasons.

According to feedback we were “very close”. Niiice!

Part 3

Now even though we had no real money we had some sponsorship. Port to Port and Drift Bikes had both sponsored build days and NPWS had a small budget for maintenance, we had been making the most of that. We rebuilt the Cliff Jumps, done a big referb on Snakes & Ladders amongst other things. The major works on Seismick was our initiative to tackle the weeds and get a better result for the MTB trail, win-win and NPWS supported that. So we were still ticking along….. slowly.

But lack of money wasn’t the only thing holding us back. Everything we were doing was heavily restricted by the Plan of Management.

The PoM is the document that the NPWS use to guide how they will manage the park and all MTB activities were governed by that.

Those of you who read the GTA history on the website will know that we played a big part in this when it was formulated and enabled MTB to become ‘officially’ supported within the park.

This document was written at a time when the NPWS MTB policy allowed for riding on fire roads and management trails ONLY within National Parks.

We were one of the first parks to support MTB on single-track at all and the first in the state to have a substantial enough trail network to call it a MTB park.

What we achieved here drove the push to change the MTB policy itself.

Anyway that meant that the (still current) PoM is very restrictive and specific about what can be done with the MTB trails right down to the very corridor. The changes to De Luge, for example, were a really big stretch. Only made possible by the fact that the existing trail was so badly eroded and needed to be re-built out of the fall-line.

This is why most of the work we’ve been doing is very conservative, mostly just a re-build of what we already have.

Without the Glossy MTB Plan there wasn’t much we could do about the development of the park, we would just be stuck with an over-used and under-resourced trail network being maintained by a group of volunteers with shovels fixing potholes.

Hardly the World Class Trails that we’d dreamed of and (almost) been promised.

This had become a ‘catch-22’ – The PoM so restrictive. The MTB Plan unfinished. Our work just going around in circles repairing what should really be replaced and built properly - and no money to do it properly without the Glossy Plan to attract funding!

At this stage the NPWS managers wanted to change the way MTB was managed within the park. Instead of being directly dictated by the PoM they wanted to use what World Trail had done as the basis for a document that would outline possible development of the MTB trail network, it would be re-written into a NPWS format and would be a stand-alone document referenced by the PoM, the PoM would be amended to accommodate and this would allow more flexibility.

Glossy Plan Mkii!

I was told that NPWS had someone who was experienced at plans and document writing who would be able to produce this, but what did they know about Glenrock? What did they know about MTB? When might this happen?

One day around the end of 2017 I was in conversation with the NPWS Park Ranger, I asked her again when would the Plan get done? It was just getting pushed back. There was apparently no way forward without it - but still it wasn’t being done.

This was getting ridiculous and my frustration was growing.

“Why don’t I have a look at it?” I said, and before the words even stopped echoing she said “Yes, why don’t you?”

‘My big mouth, I thought.

But really who knew more about the whole process? I’d been here from the start, knew about all the NPWS restrictions, had worked with World Trail on the original draft and had an intimate knowledge of the existing trail network and all it’s problems.

OK, but the NPWS still wanted all this kept under wraps and I had to agree. If word got out too soon about any development of the MTB trails we could certainly attract the wrong sort of attention.

And just like that this mammoth job dropped in my lap.

Part 4

So I turned my attention to the Glossy Plan.

At this stage I’m thinking if can smash this thing into shape all that the NPWS have to do is put it into their format and publish it. With my knowledge of all the restrictions and problems of the ‘old’ network and the World Trail plan as a starting point I should be able to produce a plan that will please everyone – Easy!

Well just let me say don’t get too excited yet, obviously if there was a completed Glossy Plan you’d know all about it.

No, it hasn’t dropped yet but it is still in the pipeline and as I’ve said before, if there’s too much interest and excitement we might well attract the wrong kind of attention before we’re ready.

Ducks in rows.

We need to present this as a huge improvement and a real benefit to the whole park and all users - which it is.

As I have said long ago to the NPWS Management – “We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem”.

2018, I was away for a while and so didn’t start into the work until a couple of months in, doing it all in my ’spare time’ and there was tons to do. I sat down with the ranger and we separated what was obviously OK and what was not. A good portion of the World Trail Plan had to be removed or replaced. Add to that the WT Plan was mostly just a ‘desk-top’ concept that hadn’t been ‘ground-truthed’, so I set out with a GPS to get some real data to work with.

I plotted all the existing trails as well as all the proposed stuff, some of it completely bush, this then had to be added to the NPWS maps so we could make proper assessment.

After that we began to explore all possibilities for alternatives to the WT Concept Plan problems.

Now the current Plan of Management restricts MTB to the northern part of the park and that’s with good reason. Most of the pre-disturbed areas are in the north, weed infestations and areas needing rehab.

The majority of the proposed development was still contained in the north and based around the existing network. The focus was on completing loops and eliminating any back-tracking, cross-over and re-use of the same trail.

So it’s fairly straight-forward to look at these areas of lesser conservation value and treat this as rehabilitation of the whole area, much the same as what we did on Seismick.

With Seismick we utilised areas which really need rehab anyway and promoted the fact that better access is the way to better weed and erosion control. Look at what a great result that was, revamped trail, clearing of heaps of noxious weeds and planting of native species for the future, plus the NPWS loved the opportunity to show what good work they were doing in the park.

So the way I see it this is a big part of the way forward. Glenrock is full of these pre-disturbed areas and weed infestations.

The next big thing is that the NPWS need to get with the program, MTB is evolving and the riders have much higher expectations now.

Trail Features!

Because the original network was adapted from the existing ad-hoc trails without any real planning trail features were not really designed in.

It’s pretty obvious that ever since someone decided to have a bit of fun on a bike features are desirable – every kid in the street has ridden off a plank on two bricks so what’s going on?

There is an unmet demand for trail features, mostly jumps, but gravity trails with features generally are missing from the park. This is also reflected in the on-going unauthorised trail-building.

If the NPWS expect people to respect the park and do the right thing we need to provide a better rider experience.

Man, I’ve been banging on about this for so long - it does my head in, but the reality is it can be pretty difficult to just add things in without a complete rebuild. In most cases we only have time and resources to repair the trail.

Going forward this sort of stuff needs to be designed in.

Anyway this was my approach to the Glossy Plan Redraft.

I worked flat out through the year and did manage to come up with a plan that met most of the brief and was accepted by the local NPWS to be submitted to the agency.

Now we were back to the NPWS getting the document written into their format.

I met with the Ranger and Planners, we adapted all the mapping and included it into the NPWS system. It really looked like things were coming together and I was told the timeframe was end of Financial 2019, June, awesome.

No, we didn’t all miss something, it’s still not finished.

The NPWS management have now got a new idea.

Normal PoM lifespan is 10 years and that’s nearly up anyway. Perhaps this proposal now constitutes a complete PoM rewrite?!?

Still waiting a decision on that.

In the meantime all this has taken up a lot of my time for the actual trail work and build days – as people would have noticed!

But what has really put the brakes on is the anticipation of changes to the way we do things.

Any work we do should complement the new plan, be done to a higher standard and with more support and resources from the Government.

Don’t think that I want to stop doing what’s needed but we just should be doing it differently and I’m very frustrated with the amount of this burden that a group of volunteers are expected to carry – this just doesn’t work.

Part 5

With things held up as much as they have been I still haven’t stopped dreaming.

There are options available to us which are permissible under the current Plan of Management and I’ve been continuing to push for those.

The Pump and Jump track is still on the cards but is a pretty large undertaking. The quarry area is a great looking site with a lot of existing features but does need some drainage work as well, anyway we don’t have funding available for anything of that scale ATM. I’m pushing for NPWS to do the drainage work as ‘In Kind’ contribution then if we raise any money it can go directly to the project and the builders will have a blank canvas to work with.

Also there are the powerline easements which offer pre-disturbed areas of lower conservation value and no vegetation clearing issues, in fact they need to be kept clear of any heavy growth.

There have been various suggestions for use of these…………..

For instance right from the start South of Gun Club rd. area has been seen as being higher conservation value than much of the surrounding bushland, It contains much more pre-European vegetation and intact habitat.

The NPWS would like to close all the trails and re-habilitate the area but the GTA has had a long standing agreement that the South of Gun Club trails not be removed until a suitable alternative is built. (This is ‘Creek’ and ‘Log’ jump area)

Very early on the NPWS have proposed that the Scenic Drv. powerline easement be an alternative site for re-building those trails, or something similar.

This is the easement that crosses Gun Club Rd. about half way along, it’s just west of Six Shooter. The northern part goes down into Murdering Gully and then back up to the corner of Scenic Drv.

I’d just like to add here that continued building in that area has now put the whole agreement in jeopardy but I’m not giving up. We could end up with something so much better.

The western powerline easement, right near the Gun Club Rd. Gate has also been nominated as an option for a Gravity or Jump trail in the WT Draft MTB Plan. It certainly has some merit being close to the gate and easy access but it’s shorter has less fall and problems with the return trail. Also the NPWS have plans for a new trailhead area that overlaps onto it.

For a true ‘Gravity’ trail the Scenic Drv easement is my preference, it has better natural terrain, much greater length and fall plus it fits right in with the other areas of ‘Intensive MTB’ use right nearby. It would be a uni-directional descent with the return on the management trail.

I feel that the Western easement better fits a shorter ‘Demo’ type trail with lots of features but just a short loop back onto G C Rd. Something you can session while waiting or for a warm up. I have some great ideas for this but am still pushing for approval – Ausgrid is involved as well, but it looks promising. Like everything here moving at a snail’s pace.

Oh, and same reason a decent ‘Pump Track’ wouldn’t fit there.

This year started out OK, we still have some sponsors on board and Drift are always ready to help.

Port to Port were again keen to support this year and we had plans for a dig day for early May working on Re-Load trail. It’s not in bad condition but could be better and also could do with some reshaping to get the character and features back into it.

Well P2P has been postponed and volunteer days aren’t allowed so with the current un-certainty we couldn’t have a trail ripped up and half done for an unknown period.

So wait-and-see for that.

Otherwise -

Wet weather education seems to come in waves of new-to-the-sport riders who need to trash at least one drive train before they get the idea that riding in the wet isn’t so great.

The “Ride Dirt, Not Mud” campaign has had some effect – as has the idea of “Stop-Drop-Dig” – At least draining the water from puddles reduces the on-going impact. No matter how well trails are built they will suffer if people continue to ride when it’s wet – dirt isn’t concrete and we certainly wouldn’t want it to be!

But still I’d like to see NPWS take responsibility for formal closures when it’s truly wet.

Moving forward, even without actual funding we do have materials available from within the park. NPWS have machines and operators but are limited by budget. They do have everything else in the park to maintain.

Really we need more support from further up the chain to allow more of the budget to go to MTB then a lot of this could be done in-house.

I was told long ago the way forward was political but I’m just a digger.


Present Day


In December 2021 the State Government granted $600K to be used on 'maintenance' of the MTB trails - From GTA May '22

"The 600K is a great and will go a long way to getting trails rebuilt - the plan is to eventually rebuild every MTB trail to a higher, more sustainable standard. But before we can get onto the actual trail work the NPWS has a lot of things to get in order.

With such a big project there will be impacts on other assets and users of the park. This means that the Plan of Management (PoM) needs to be updated, as I have mentioned before. It is nearly complete but things move slowly.

Next is the upgraded Cycling Policy. I have reported on this before as well, it’s 99% done but still held up internally.

Also for Glenrock one thing that isn’t up to current requirements is the audit of all heritage and artifacts within the park, this includes European heritage as well as Aboriginal. The new standard is very comprehensive and is taking a long time to complete – but it is nearly done.

So a portion of the grant money is being used to help complete all those important factors and set us up for the long term."

High Roller trail is the first to be rebuilt under the grant.


Once all the requirements are in place we are hoping for a return to mainstream volunteer events during 2022.