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Brisbane parks gear-up for bike boom

The boom in off-road bike riding around Brisbane has caused the Brisbane City Council to earmark 40 parks and reserves to include new off-road cycling facilities. 

The council finalised the Off-Road Cycling Strategy late last year, with plans to introduce a range of skills tracks, dirt jumps, pump tracks, single trails, cyclo-cross circuits and shared cycling trails.

Bike riding groups are keen to see more dedicated tracks to support the growing popularity of off-road bike riding in the area, with Brisbane currently only having around 30 kilometres of heavily used trails at Mount Coot-tha 

Some of the new plans for the next five years include:
  • New single-trail mountain bike tracks at Toohey Forest, Glider Forest, Karawatha Forest Park, Keperra Bushland, and Prout Road Park
  • Skills, jumps or pump tracks at Holland Park West, Mount Coot-tha Reserve, Gap Creek Picnic Area, Platypus Park at Mount Crosby, and Thrush Street Park in Inala.
  • Cyclo-cross circuits for Pallara Park, Ross Park in Nundah, and Bill Brown Sports Reserve in Fitzgibbon.

However there are some conservation concerns around allowing mountain bikers into sensitive ecological areas, which the strategy recognises and hopes that new facilities will reduce some of the illegal track-making currently going on in parklands. 

Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee chair Tracy Davis said it was a challenge to balance opportunities for recreation while managing environmental impacts.

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