During an election year, we are reminded that our vote counts. In Australia’s most recent election, citizens heard the familiar slogan, but in there case, it could also count for kilometers of new mountain bike trails.
One Australian political party promised to allocate over a million dollars to trail systems near the country’s capital, Canberra. The funds would help maintain current trails and build several new trails, helping Canberra compete as one of Australia’s top mountain bike destinations.
The ACT Greens
While Sydney may be the most well-known city in Australia, the nation’s capital, Canberra, is located 150 miles southwest of Sydney. Like Washington D.C., Canberra resides in a territory — the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) — rather than a state.
The ACT Greens is a branch of the Australian Greens political party for the capital territory, founded in 1992. Commonly known as the “Greens,” the party built its platform around environmental conservation and social justice. They have representation in the six Australian states, Tasmania, and, of course, the ACT.
“In the last parliamentary term, I served as spokesperson for numerous areas, including sports,” Laura Nuttall told us. Nuttall is a Greens party representative and a recently re-elected member of the ACT Legislative Assembly.
“Amongst sports policy, mountain biking was one of the key areas we worked on in developing our policy platform, particularly because of the enthusiasm of the mountain biking community in Canberra,” she said.
While Canberra is a top Australian mountain bike destination, recent trail system developments have been challenging its dominance. When we first reported on Australia’s Mogo trails, it was “the biggest mountain bike construction project in Australia to date.” The Wambenger Trails quickly followed, boasting a massive 170km of trails in Western Australia.
With other parts of Australia continuing to invest in mountain bike infrastructure, the ACT Greens have stepped up for Canberra-area trails. During the most recent election, the political party promised $1.2 million for mountain bike trail maintenance and expansion.
What would $800,000 do for Stromlo?
Mt. Stromlo rises roughly 500 feet above the neighboring Molonglo Valley and is home to Stromlo Forest Park, the ACT’s top destination for mountain biking, drawing overnight tourists from places like Sydney with the intent of riding Stromlo. The trail system also hosted the sixth round of the 2008 UCI Downhill World Cup and the 2009 World Championships.
Of the $1.2 million, $800,000 will go toward new trails at Stromlo, which already has a master plan. “This funding is to fast-track trail development in order to make Stromlo more attractive to tourists,” Nuttall said. “We are committed to fully funding the Stromlo Master Plan, which will almost certainly be more than just $800,000.”
Over 50 kilometers of purpose-built mountain bike trails are currently available at Stromlo. The master plan adds quite a bit of infrastructure to the area, including trails for hiking and running, equestrians, road cycling circuits, and a pumptrack. Mountain biking is the largest user group at Stromlo and sees the most significant bump in trails. Some of the trails added in the plan include three (one beginner, one intermediate, and one difficult) gravity flow trails, a range of adaptive trails, intermediate XC trails, and climb trails. The plan also commits to investigating areas for trails with a higher degree of difficulty.
Of the 32.5 kilometers of trail the Stromlo Master Plan adds, 50% (16km) is green, 37% (12km) is blue, 8% (2.5km) is black, and 6% (2km) is double-black.
The remaining $400,000 will go toward maintaining and improving Canberra’s local trails outside of Stromlo. “These trails tend to miss out on funding as they are more catering to local mountain bikers rather than having the tourist draw that Stromlo trails do,” Nuttall told us. “It’s also important that Canberran mountain bikers are not forced to compete with tourists to enjoy their hobby.”
Local advocates hope the proposed changes will improve Stromlo’s connectivity and add advanced trails.
“So the way it is now, [Stromlo is] very much from a beginner focus up,” Matt Battye, President of Canberra Off-Road Cyclists (CORC), told us. “So we’ve got some training loops there — dedicated training areas.”
CORC was founded in the late 1980s and has grown to be the largest mountain bike club in Australia. The club primarily supports smaller community cycling groups, coordinates and runs events, and develops younger riders.
Stromlo Forest Park’s trails tend to be shorter, requiring riders to make connections as they descend. Currently, Stromlo has 43 green trails, 22 blue, 11 black, and 12 double-black, including World Cup A-Line, raced during the UCI stops of 2008 and 2009.
Battye shared that what Stromlo lacks in elevation, it makes up in feature-rich trails. “Rather than running into a couple of features over a kilometer, you run into a couple of features every 100 meters,” he told us.
Advanced trails are rough and chunky and tend to be higher up on Mt. Stromlo, connecting to the intermediate and beginner trails near the bottom. The trails are directional, with many popular beginner and intermediate XC loops at the mountain’s base.
While Battye is excited about new trails at Stromlo, he is hopeful for how the Stomlo Master Plan will re-work trails on the mountain. “[Stromlo] doesn’t function anywhere near as well as it can,” he explained, “but it was never designed to do what it’s now being asked to do.”
With over half a million visitors to Stromlo each year, Battye would like to see the mountain operate as a proper trail system. This includes more direct and easy climb trails, rerouting where existing trails cross unnecessarily, and reducing user conflict. Battye told us this would be the first phase of the master plan.
“Stage two is to start to open up the western side of the mountain because the terrain over there is quite different,” Battye told us. “It’s much more rough and ready, hand-built style of trail.” There is also more elevation on the western side, allowing for longer runs.
When is the funding expected?
The ACT Greens won four of the 25 seats in Australia’s most recent parliamentary elections. We were curious if the $1.2 million depended on the outcome of the polls. Nuttall explained that it was.
“Yes, the $1.2 million is an election commitment from the ACT Greens. As we did not gain enough seats […] we will need to negotiate with other parties to get any of our sporting election commitments through,” Nuttall said.
Despite the $1.2 million promise, funding will depend on negotiating with other parties. While negotiations seem promising, there are currently no funds earmarked for trails in the ACT. The party said that while it was open to using grant funds to distribute money to trail groups, there isn’t a specific place, yet, where the overall funding will come from.
The ACT Greens informed us that there are two other parties in the assembly, as well as two independents, who are willing to work on the funding issue. Up to this point, the Greens have had productive chats with the Labor Party on advancing the trail funding.
Despite not having an exact date for when Stromlo and other Canberra trails will see funding, Nuttall remains assured of the ACT Greens’ promise. “It is early days in the parliamentary term but we are confident we can use our position to continue to negotiate for strong outcomes for the community.”
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