Tasman Peninsula Mountain Bike Association working to bring 80km+ of trails to Taranna

Flow Mountain Bike acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Pydarerme people of the Paredarerme language group, who are the original custodians of Taranna, the Tasman Peninsula and the surrounding area. We recognise their connection to lands, waters and communities and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

When Drew Carr from the Tasman Peninsula Mountain Bike Association was invited to a dinner with the local Rotary Club to present an idea to bring mountain bikers to their small town in Tasmania, one person, realising the trails would run close behind their house, spoke up and was not keen on the idea.

“By the end of the presentation, she said, “I’ve completely changed my mind,” recalls Carr.

This resident explained that she had five grandchildren staying with her for a long weekend, and she feared they might go home early because they were bored. But if there were mountain bike trails, they would be at her place all the time because they wanted to ride.

About an hour from Hobart, the Tasman Peninsula is only connected to the Tasmanian mainland with a 100m wide piece of terra firma called Eaglehawk Neck, and it’s home to Taranna Bayview Road trails, a small private network built and run by the local mountain bike club.

Built on a 100-acre lease, the Tasman Peninsula Mountain Bike Association, with the help of a few motivated volunteers, has constructed a 7km trail network. But this is only the start, and the community-built ride centre is a proof of concept for a much larger vision the club hopes to bring to their area.

With the hills near Taranna offering up to 400m of vertical drop — and there is already a pre-existing fire road to the top — the TPMBA has an ambitious plan to build 80+km of trails and add their area to the tapestry of mountain bike destinations in Tasmania.

How it all began

At the end of 2021, the Tasman Council posted a notice on social media about investigating the potential for mountain biking in the region. In a very small Local Government Area with only about 3,000 ratepayers, and no trails, the local councillors were met with quite a surprise when ~30 people showed up to this roundtable event.

Not realising the riders’ community in their area, this group came together to determine whether building a trail network would be feasible and what benefits it could bring to the community.

Taranna is not far from Port Arthur, one of Australia’s most popular historic sites, and the Three Capes Track— maybe you’ve heard of it? There’s also world-class surfing opportunities at Shipstern Bluff, rock climbing, hang gliding, sea kayaking and deep sea fishing in the area, so the locals are not naive to the tourism economy.

Building on the South East Tasmania Mountain Bike Proposal, the club assembled a feasibility report in 2022 laying out 86 km of trails. They identified a trailhead area that already housed a community centre with parking, toilets, and space to host events. The club also drew out plans for trail alignments that thread the needle between council-owned land and state forest with relatively low ecological or forestry production value.

The trail network sees a stepped design with two clusters of trails and a 27km adventure trail following ridgelines towards the southern end of the Peninsula — with bailout options along the way.

One of the main goals the club hopes to achieve is building a network that is progressive, to capture some of the 150,000-300,000 visitors that venture onto the Peninsula annually while also offering something for riders who are road-tripping around Tassie from Derby to St Helens and out west towards Maydena and Queenstown.

“We want to draw people in, if you get an e-Bike or a shuttle up here, here are all of the amazing things you can see. Maybe even people having their first ride here,” says Carr.

“Based on the conversations, we thought we would present it (the feasibility study) to the Council, and they’d go thanks for doing the pre-work. We’ll take it from here,” says Carr.

Being a small, under-resourced council at the time, the bandwidth simply wasn’t available to keep things rolling. Carr says that coming from a fresh-faced new community group, the reports they’d compiled didn’t hold quite as much credibility. So the TPMBA went about gaining some street cred.

The private, public trail network

Undeterred, Carr and his merry band of local mountain bikers decided to prove there was a demand for trails. They found a plot of land adjacent to where the larger network is proposed, owned by a local family, and negotiated a lease to allow them to build and operate a trail network.

“We managed to secure a lease, to set up insurance, set up memberships and start charging people. All of that goes into the cost of lease, which is very low, and the cost of insurance, which is very high. Anything that is left over goes into things like signage or professionals to help us build quality trails,” says Carr.

Yes, that’s right, this 7km micro trail network is pay-to-access, using the Hive Pass app, similar to how Mystic Bike Park ran prior to the Elevation Parks takeover. There is a QR code at the locked gate, and when you sign up, you get the combo to the lock.

Carr says they currently have just over 200 annual memberships and about 50 short-term members on top of that, likely purchased by folks just passing through. To put that into context, of the stats we could find the Rockhampton MTB club claims 200 active members, the Wagga Wagga MTB club claims over 100 members, and the Orange Mountain Bike Club claims about 120 members. While it’s not an apples to apples comparison, those three places have significantly larger populations to draw from.

“When I look at the database, every fifteenth or so member doesn’t just sign up, they also donate to the trails. I think people are really happy to contribute to what we are doing and can see the effort that has gone into this community project,” he explains.

For a brand new, small trail network in an LGA with less than 3,000 people, that’s quite the impact.

Carr says during the summer, they get about 50 people that come to their monthly dig days. Including a few folks from around town who don’t ride — and take that with the 150 people that showed up to the open day they ran back in October.

They’ve even had feedback from the next council over — Sorell — praising what they’ve constructed. It seems the TPMBA has hit on an underserved demographic in the area.

What are the trails like?

When asked to describe the hills behind Tarana, Paul “Sticky” Richardson from the TPMBA said, “Rocky, Rocky, and Rocky.

“We’re stoked if we can find a bit of clay and sand to fill out a few berms, but we’re dealing with a lot of rock,” he says

With 180m of vertical in their small network, Carr and Richardson say a fire road splits the plot. So far, they have only cracked into the geologically dominated north-facing end of the block.

“It’s hard to work up there, but once it’s built, it’s really durable,” says Carr.

“We haven’t built anything yet on the southern-facing side of the block; it’s a bit damper and ferny. We have a trail planned out there, which we’re going to start in February, which is exciting,” he continues.

Everything that goes in is driven by the club, but it hasn’t gotten to a point where any sort of bureaucratic approvals are needed. While there are some constraints in the lease regarding what they can and can’t build, the organic process of creating the network is working and the club members are showing common sense and creativity.

“Eventually, someone might put in something that’s not well thought out or dangerous. If you came to build something, we trust your judgement — because not that many people actually want to come out and build trails — and we’ll work with you if there’s anything that’s problematic,” says Carr.

“Most of the time, we get people saying, “I can’t believe we’re allowed to do this,” Richardson adds.

Having been out in the bush since 2022 chucking away, they have rough trail plans to guide the club’s efforts, but they have also enlisted some professional help when they can. Enlisting a few trail contractors like Jack Dean of Flow Scape Trail and Jack O’Hare, who have both worked on World Trail builds around the state.

“They’ll bring their own excavator and do the bulk of the work, but just rough it. Then, we’ll use hands and feet on dig days to finish the trail off. We’ve found that’s a really (cost) effective way to build,” says Carr.

The Club is also working with The Shredding Betties Mountain Bike Club from Hobart to build a trail in the network.

What about the larger trail network?

The two years spent working through this process have all been in service of showing that the push for these trails isn’t just about creating somewhere for this small group of locals to ride.

“At first, some people were a little wary, people who had been in the Lions Club and on Rotary for years. Lions have been our biggest donor, along with the community op shop in Nebeena. It’s really been embraced by the community across the board,” says Richardson.

“There’s an older guy who is an absolute wiz on the shovel. He doesn’t ride, but he comes to the dig days — just loves digging, the community and being around people in the bush,” says Richardson.

In 2022, when this initiative kicked off, the club met with The Council, National Parks, and Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT), which manage the Future Potential Production Forest and Permanent Production Forest within the state forest zones.

“The small amount of production forest is actually mostly designated as a reserve that they’re not going to log. It’s not particularly productive, and you can see it from the coastline, and it’s all right off some houses,” Carr says.

Parks were on board and went as far as outlining a potential lease, but they still needed STT to connect it all.

This so happened to be when STT was in the news for the logging operations around Derby and Maydena.

“The Sustainable Timber Rep basically said we’re at the stage where we don’t want mountain bikers near forestry operations. We had a tourism policy, and we’ve torn it up. It’s not our policy anymore, we’re not a tourism business,” says Carr.

Carr acknowledges that, in hindsight, taking a new proposal to STT at the time was never going to go well.

This was early on in the piece before they had the proof-of-concept trail network, and Carr says they’ve had positive discussions with the Council and State Government.

“If we can get some federal input, I can’t see them (STT) pushing back on land that isn’t going to be harvested,” Carr says.

Carr says that discussions with The Council are ongoing. A Draft Structure Planning Document has outlined that it will play a facilitator and advocate role in developing these trails. The document also specifies that a feasibility and masterplan will be undertaken to improve facilities at Taranna Hall, where the trails are proposed. The Council have also appointed an economic development officer to pursue grant funding and develop a longer-term strategic plan for the area.

“I don’t think they really had anyone in that team before to drive new initiatives and that sort of thing. We’ve had some great conversations with them and the (Council’s) General Manager,” says Carr.

They are still in the process of informing the relevant authorities about issues such as maintenance, shuttles, and similar matters. However, they’re making significant progress thanks to the work already completed within their small network.

It seems that with an election looming later this year, both major parties have identified the Tasman electorate as a possible win, as both major party candidates for Prime Minister had come to town in the days prior to our call. Carr says they are working to capitalise on that to get an election commitment from the Division of Lyons candidates where seven seats are up for grabs.

It’s a lofty project to bring a nationally significant trail destination to their corner of Tasmania, and there is still lots of work to do. But in recent years we’ve seen places like Narooma and Eden come to be on the back of a motivated community. So while the TPMBA is dreaming big, what they’re aiming to accomplish has been done and the club has shown there is an appetite in the region for trails, despite the number of riding destinations already in the state. We’ll keep an eye on this project as it progresses, and if you’re passing by, swing through and ride the trails at Taranna.

Photos: Amanda Walker / Tasman Peninsula MTB Club, Tasman Peninsula MTB Club, Sean Scott / Tourism Tas, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service

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