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Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan

Draft Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan Released for Public Comment

Sport and Recreation Tasmania has released a Draft Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan for public comment. Individuals and organisations wishing to provide comment on the Draft Mountain Bike Plan have until 11 October 2009 to provide their submissions.

The draft Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan aims to provide a framework for the coordinated development, management and marketing of mountain bike opportunities in Tasmania.

The Draft Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan is comprised of two documents:

pdficon_small  Main Plan [PDF 6.6 MB, 143 pages]

pdficon_small  Main Plan (Reduced Quality) [PDF 3 MB, 143 pages]

pdficon_small  Attachments [PDF 1 MB, 45 pages]

In addition to these documents, the summary in the Main Plan has been extracted and included here as a separate PDF:

pdficon_small Summary [PDF 500 KB, 12 pages]

 

The Summary provides a brief outline of the background to the plan, an overview of the findings from the inventory of trails and facilities for mountain biking in Tasmania, the key findings from community consultations, a vision for mountain biking in Tasmania and 50 recommended actions under 12 key future directions.

Individuals wishing to provide comment on the Draft Mountain Bike Plan should e-mail the consultants preparing the plan at <info@inspiringplace.com.au> or write to Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan, Inspiring Place, 208b Collins St, Hobart 7000, by 11 October 2009.

The Project

Sport and Recreation Tasmania recently engaged consultants from Inspiring Place to develop a state mountain bike plan for Tasmania. The plan, which is expected to be released in August 2009, will provide a framework for the coordinated development and marketing of mountain bike opportunities in Tasmania.

Context

The Trails Tasmania Strategy was released by the State Government in December 2007. The Trails Tasmania Strategy recognised the strong and growing demand for mountain biking trails and identified a lack of provision to meet current demand, particularly for mountain biking trails and facilities close to where people live. The Trails Tasmania Strategy recommended the development of a state mountain bike plan and presented several strategies directly related to mountain biking.

The State Government committed $4 million in the 2008/09 state budget to support tracks, trails and city bikeways. Sport and Recreation Tasmania has allocated a portion of this funding to the development of this mountain bike plan.

Project Steering Committee

Sport and Recreation Tasmania will act as the lead agency and project manager. A steering committee for the project has been established with the following representatives:

  • Keith Ryan (Sport and Recreation Tasmania)
  • Luke Chiu (Sport and Recreation Tasmania)
  • Chris Colley (Parks and Wildlife Service)
  • Michael Easton (Wellington Park Management Trust)
  • Frank Hussey (Tourism Tasmania)
  • Richard Skinner (Forestry Tasmania).


Community and Land Manager Forums

Three community forums and three land manager forums were recently conducted for the Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan. Over 170 mountain bike riders and over 40 land managers attended the forums held in the three regions of Tasmania. The number of participants at each forum is provided below.

  • North West Community Forum - 30 participants
  • North West Land Managers Forum - 9 participants

  • Northern Community Forum - 45 participants
  • Northern Land Manager Forum - 10 participants

  • Southern Community Forum - 95 participants
  • Southern Land Manager Forum - 22 participants

 

Survey

In addition to the community forums, members of the public had the opportunity to provide input into the plan through an online survey, which was available on this site during June and early July.

568 completed surveys were received, with some of the initial results below:

  • 86% of respondents were male
  • 63% of respondents were aged between 25-44 years, with 25 – 34 years the most common age group (34%) followed by 35-44 years (29%)
  • 88% of respondents rode a mountain bike once a week or more frequently, with 53% riding 2-3 times a week and a further 19% riding daily
  • 38% of riders had been riding for more than 10 years 
  • The most common type of mountain bike riding was ‘cross country/all mountain’ with 80% of riders indicating this was their preferred or style of riding they did most often 
  • The three best riding locations identified in each region were:

South 

  • Glenorchy MTB Park
  • Wellington Park / South Hobart
  • Clarence MTB Park / Meehan Range

North

  • Blue Tier
  • Trevallyn Reserve
  • Kate Reed Reserve

Northwest

  • Montezuma Falls
  • Stubbs Road
  • Granville Harbour

• The 4 most popular attributes for great mountain bike riding experiences were:

  • ‘Setting / Environment’ (58%)
  • ‘Trail Flow’ (55%)
  • ‘Easy Access / Location’ (50%)
  • ‘Technical Challenge’ (47%).

The two Winners of the National Parks Passes, drawn by the Minister for Sport and Recreation, were

  • John Clingo, South Hobart
  • Mike Austin, Newtown


More Information

Further information on the project, can be found in the Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan Project Outline (Adobe PDF, 2 pages, 300KB).

The following links provide useful background to the project:

Trails Tasmania Strategy

pdficon_smallMountain Biking in Tasmania (Adobe PDF, 18 pages, 1MB)

Mountain Bike Tourism Market Profile for Tasmania

Alternatively, please contact the Project Manager:

Keith Ryan
Phone: (03)6336 2011
Email: Keith.Ryan@development.tas.gov.au


Last Updated

This Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan web page was last updated on 14 September 2009.