Derived from the Aboriginal word for hilly, Omeo, VIC is set to be one of the largest mountain bike destinations on the mainland when it’s all finished, with well over 100km of singletrack on offer.
While there have been a few delays due to the uncharacteristically wet weather that has inundated most of eastern Australia since El Niño moved in and some bureaucratic holds the crew at Common Ground has been working away building a masterpiece.
About 22km of singletrack are currently open to the public, and more than 80% of the total network is due to be ready to ride this Spring.
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Flow’s own Jono Wade passed through Omeo on an Easter long weekend road trip and said, “The little bit that we rode was unreal, and it’s going to be pretty incredible when it’s all open. I didn’t realise Omeo has that much vert, and there are going to be trails everywhere.”
We caught up with Common Ground Construction Manager Jordon Virgl and Omeo Mountain Bike Trail Coordinator Ben Reeves to get the bigger picture and see how things are coming along.
The Legend of Sam Hill
The trail network starts at Livingstone Park, which is roughly 200m from the middle of town and the closest pub. The swath of land the trails will occupy meanders nearly 600 vertical metres up to the top of Mount Sam. To put that in perspective, Thredbo also claims about 600m of vertical drop.
According to Virgl, who took over from Common Ground trail building legend Deon Baker, who had been stationed in Omeo for over a year, back in October, the hardest part of the project is comprehending the size and scale of it all.
“The network is so big, it’s hard to understand (for builders) the context of what they’re working on in relation to the bigger picture. When we had teams working here a year ago, they were building climbs, traverses, and green trails. Now that we’ve moved into the bigger stuff and the network is filling in the teams have a much better understanding of what’s in front of them,” he says.
“I just walked one of our builders, Matt, down Flomeo (which will be one of Omeo’s signature trails). After walking a good chunk of the alignment he was stoked. It’s an awesome opportunity to build something that everyone can enjoy, a blue flow trail that’s 4-5kms long. From the top of the Gravity Hub all the way down into the jumps park,” he says.
The trail hub is in town located alongside the pump track that spells out Omeo, and is also where the shuttles will leave from. The uplift will eventually take you to the trailhead at the top of Mount Sam, which is actually called Sam Hill.
Dating back to about the 1960s this rise outside Omeo was always called Sam Hill, but then for some reason the signs were changed to Mount Sam.
“When we went through the process as (East Gippsland Shire) Council around naming trails and getting them approved through the formal process, ESTA (Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority) asked that we revert back to Sam Hill because that’s what it’s referred to in their mapping systems, and from an emergency perspective we need to be consistent,” says Reeves.
Of course, the nod to the Aussie MTB great is just a happy coincidence and quite the marketing partnership should they coax the man himself over from Perth.
But what exactly is there to coax the downhill and enduro legend to this town, which was previously best known for the Mountain Calf Sales and Hinnomunjie Picnic Races, the Easter Rodeo and as a town on the way to Hotham? We’re glad you asked.
Omeo Mountain Bike Destination overview
Virgl explains that since the original planning work was completed for the Omeo Mountain Bike Destination, bikes and the way the people use them have changed a fair bit.
“When the original concept planning work was done in the design phase, it was probably more based around a cross-country style network. XC is still massive, but modern bikes are getting into that lower, longer, slacker feel, and we can’t deny that there is also a heavy focus on lightweight and regular e-Bikes coming online that has shifted how people utilise a trail network and get around a trail network,” he says.
This has influenced the actual building techniques used and the style of trails being constructed.
“I would say it’s become more of an enduro-style network, and there is some pretty gnarly stuff, but there are different zones depending on your riding style,” says Virgl.
He explained that at the Sam Hill Trailhead, there are sessionable enduro loops. For the XC rider, you can start from town, head out into the backcountry, or hit a loop still known by its construction name, XC14.
“It goes from town the long way to the very top of Mount Sam. Or if you’re really gravity-focused, you can ride over to an area we call the Gravity Hub and just do laps there. There are so many ways to use the network, depending on what you want to get out of it,” he says.
While there are geographic riding zones per say, Virgl didn’t think any of the areas could be pigeonholed as a particular style because of the diversity of the trails across the network, except one, which is a pure Gravity Hub.
Even within each trail, Virgl says they sought to build progressive learning into the network, but also within each trail regardless of whether it’s a green or a double black.
“If you do Flomeo top to bottom the first time, you can roll the whole thing. The second time, you might hit a few side hits, and the third time, you might go for all the side hits, which will lead you upto the black trail,” he says. “But even then, we want progression in that (one trail) through multiple options. What we didn’t want is for there to be a feature right in front of you, and there is no way around it, and you have to hit it,” he says.
A new approach to adaptive riders
When we spoke, Reeves had just attended the Mountain Bike Destination Summit in Maydena, where friend of Flow Grant Allen had presented a different perspective on integrating adaptive trails into a network.
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“By nature of the trail network being built by machines, the width is there, and it’s more about the skill level of the rider and the quality of the adaptive bikes they ride,” he says. “Most adaptive riders don’t want dumbed-down trails, and neither do core riders. What they do need is different levels of support and to be considered when it comes to access issues like, carparking, toilets and bridges.”
Reeves goes on to explain that there is funding available for adaptive riders for a support rider who can shadow them and render assistance if needed. He tells Flow that Omeo is looking at creating a trail grading system around the level of support an adaptive rider may need on each trail. That way they can self-assess based on their abilities and know that if they tip over on a particular trail, they will need help to get back up.
“It’s exactly the same in the ski industry. There are some trails they can do themselves, and then in other instances, there is funding available for full support,” he says.
Challenges on the build
Beyond the weather, Omeo has presented some unique challenges for the trail builders. The biggest has been access, as much of the singletrack the Common Ground crew is working on doesn’t yet have vehicle access.
“You’re probably riding 14-20km in and out, which has been the big crux of it for construction. We’re riding e-Bikes with backpacks, jerry cans, and chainsaws on our backs. We’ve got a moped, which we use quite a bit, and one of the guys has a dirt bike,” says Virgl.
But the terrain has also been a challenge. Some of the trails have yet to be connected to anything, and to backtrack out, the trail crew could end up hiking 2-3km UP a black descent to get back to their bikes.
“For one trail, we actually walked the machine down to the bottom of a gully. We left it at the bottom of the hill and then hand-built the trail the whole way across the hill down to the machine,” he says.
Wet weather, too, has been a challenge but has also proved to be a blessing in disguise, because it has provided real-time demonstrations of how water follows gravity in the landscape.
“The hill itself has a lot of watershed and springs. So we’ll build something and then come back to find an issue, so then we’ll rock pave across or re-think the drains,” he says.
What do the townsfolk think?
When we last left Omeo, many locals donated old farming equipment to be incorporated as features in the skills park and pump track, and were excited for mountain bikers to come to town. According to Virgl, that sentiment still rings true.
“The community itself has been really supportive,” he says. “The people here are stoked, and it’s a wicked town. Most of the town is riding e-Bikes now.”
Prior to the trail network, as Christophe Stevens, the Owner of the local bike shop Velo Grammont and the man behind the Cattleman 100 explained, there was no real singletrack around, and nobody had a mountain bike. Now, the young and old locals are getting behind mountain bikes because they have the opportunity on their doorstep.
“There is a young kid named Charlie working at the pub. He looks so young I feel like he shouldn’t be working there, but he’s putting in hours so he can buy a new mountain bike,” says Reeves.
“Omeo has a strong gold mining history, and these days is better known as a farming town with access to the ski fields of Mt Hotham, 4×4 adventures and some amazing bush camping, it (the trail network) is giving those kids a new sense of pride in their town that they wouldn’t have had before,” he continues.
Virgl and Reeves both say it really is a trail town. The trailhead is in the CBD, and everything from the Foodworks to the pharmacy, cafes, restaurants, and accommodation is within walking distance. There is also a huge seven-acre caravan park in town with 140 sites that’s connected to the trail network with a blue-rated access track — with an easier, family-friendly connection trail in the works.
Planning for the future
A pitfall that so many new trail networks fall into is building this shiny new, multi-million dollar community asset and then the managing body all but washing their hands of it, leaning on volunteers and the local mountain bike club to manage and maintain it.
The East Gippsland Shire Council brought in Reeves to manage the trail network early in the process to keep things running smoothly.
“There are many councils that have a trail maintenance team, however that team tends to be managed in-house by someone with little to no knowledge of the sport or the asset, my role as a subject matter specialist – as a mountain biker – based in Omeo is to be the conduit at Council to be able to articulate what the network needs and why, from a rider’s perspective. And to connect all the key areas needed to create a great riding experience from marketing, events, trail maintenance and emergency management,” he says.
Reeves tells us the Council has already allocated a budget in the upcoming financial year to manage and maintain the trails. In fact they have just onboarded their first three full-time trail crew members with plans to expand this team as more trail opens up.
How much is open in Omeo, and when can I expect more?
As it stands there’s about 22km of singletrack open to ride, with the rest of the network very much still an active construction zone.
Depending on how wet things are, Virgl says they could have a top-to-bottom run on Sam Hill ready by June. The Council aims to have 80% of the trails online for Spring, and the remainder will trickle out through March 2025.
Once the next section of trails opens, we’ll be back in Omeo for a complete destination feature, so stay tuned. Check out the Ride Omeo Facebook and Instagram for updates on how the network is progressing and what’s open
Photos: Sam Purdie