Nerang (Gold Coast) MTB Crisis. Everyone help please
- Thread starter Ridenparadise
- Start date
Ackland
chats d'élevage
Well.... that certainly paints a different picture to the Parks QLD docs.
Did you get the Appendix 2 - Costings?
From my reasonably well informed understanding, none of the priority recommendations in the DA report would have cost much to implement and the additional major upgrades could have gone onto a grant funding register for the club to co-fund and/or go onto the capital investment program.
Flow-Rider
Burner
The local MTB club were getting good numbers for volenteering at trailcare days, something happen between the club and parks, and it went downhill from there. The club offered to remediate many of the problems but were turned away.
Flow-Rider
Burner
You'll have to ask @Ridenparadise.
Flow-Rider
Burner
One of the small waterfalls in the dry season.
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Bump. Only a week left to add your public comment in favour of the Nerang MTB trail system, or it will be destroyed. MTB cannot afford to lose a legacy trail system enjoyed by hundreds of thousands for more than 2 decades. To lose it based on false accusations of environmental damage would be a tragedy. They are banking on our apathy. Let's not allow that to happen. Please help. Hit the link in the OP above and register to comment.
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
To answer Ackland, AFAIK the club and other MTB advocacy stakeholders have attended all meetings. We have never been excluded, but in my opinion we have been stonewalled, manipulated and misled for over a decade by a land manager prejudiced against MTB without providing evidence to substantiate their claims we need to be shut down to save the park. The addition of an indigenous voice against MTB has been quite recent. See "Save our Nerang Forest Trails" on Facebook for more details.
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oldcorollas
Levin the moment
Made it to ABC news..
www.abc.net.au
Plans to shut 30km of illegally built mountain bike trails in national park
A network of trails at Nerang National Park is being used by mountain bikers 140,000 times a year. But with half of them illegally dug, the state government says some will need to go.
www.abc.net.au
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Bump. Only 5 days left to comment. The opposition to MTB has been lobbying hard and definitely adding supportive comments to the draft development plan public comment survey. Please add your support and tell all your riding buddies.
Flow Mountain Bike have just presented a respectful and excellent summary of the history of the Nerang National Park trails conflict. It does not go back as far as the initial 2012 trail audit, but that audit was essentially in lockstep with the 2018 Dirt Art trail audit, which they do discuss. Both audits have been ignored.
https://flowmountainbike.com/featur...rails-reducing-nerang-network-by-nearly-half/
I appreciate their comprehensive review of the different stakeholders. It is worth reading this before registering and adding your comment through the official portal in the opening post.
Flow Mountain Bike have just presented a respectful and excellent summary of the history of the Nerang National Park trails conflict. It does not go back as far as the initial 2012 trail audit, but that audit was essentially in lockstep with the 2018 Dirt Art trail audit, which they do discuss. Both audits have been ignored.
https://flowmountainbike.com/featur...rails-reducing-nerang-network-by-nearly-half/
I appreciate their comprehensive review of the different stakeholders. It is worth reading this before registering and adding your comment through the official portal in the opening post.
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Nambra
Definitely should have gone to specsavers
Completed the submission a few weeks back, and also emailed my local member to point out the highly flawed 'process' QPWS was following, and that there is every chance they'll ignore the feedback from the public consultation process, just as they seem to have paid lip service to the cultural heritage survey if the Flow article is anything to go by.
I also rode there on Sunday with my son. In 3 hours of riding, we saw just one other rider on the trails and zero mtb related rubbish. The notion that the presence of riders on those old tracks like Raptor, Lost World, Super Loop etc. is the "primary threat" to the park is just absurd. Yes, there are some small areas where erosion control work is needed, but they're otherwise goat tracks. I have no idea how QPWS will be able to get in there to demolish them without causing more harm than they think they're preventing.
I also rode there on Sunday with my son. In 3 hours of riding, we saw just one other rider on the trails and zero mtb related rubbish. The notion that the presence of riders on those old tracks like Raptor, Lost World, Super Loop etc. is the "primary threat" to the park is just absurd. Yes, there are some small areas where erosion control work is needed, but they're otherwise goat tracks. I have no idea how QPWS will be able to get in there to demolish them without causing more harm than they think they're preventing.
Flow-Rider
Burner
Only a handful of people go out the back to those other trails, and it's always been the case because the terrain is difficult for the new or novice rider, and they're fairly remote. The erosion exists because they blocked the local club off from any trail care. I think it's easier to leave SE Qld if you want anything other than Woolworths generic style trails in a public network.
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Well, thank you to everyone who was motivated to assess and comment on this sad issue. Nerang could be a world class trail destination with >100km of trail and still not be an environmental problem, other than in a construction phase. Public comments to the draft management plan closed an hour ago. It is still possible that the letters of concern template offered through gcmtb.com.au and BORRA will have an impact, so please review and send them if you haven't already.
This matter is not dead. Some time back I contacted the state opposition leader, David Chrisafulli. He took an interest in our problem when QPWS first proposed this plan 3 years ago. I received a reply yesterday stating the shadow environment minister Sam O'Connor, a Gold Coaster, has been briefed. He has requested a meeting with Minster for Environment Linane to discuss the Nerang MTB system. David Chrisafulli and/or Sam O'Connor would like to arrange a meeting with MTB stakeholders on the trails. Those people have been advised and hopefully we can get media and political support to prevent a travesty.
I fear QPWS intends to quickly pass this draft management plan and move machines into the park ASAP. Based on their past efforts, they will use small machines to roughly dig up the tread, cover it with deadfall timber and leave it unrideable. I have not previously seen evidence of attempted revegetation or even graded rehabilitation from the land manager and this is a massive project, not contained like Norco Flow and Wimps. This and the fact they are responsible for quantifiable fine sedimentation of park waterways from their service roads, should be enough to put a stop on any decommissioning. However, that is doubtful without ongoing advocacy, public exposure and political support.
Please keep up the good fight for Nerang, because it may be a test case for other Qld State, Conservation and National Parks trail systems, or potential systems. If you have media contacts, access to your local member, the inclination to correspond with Minister Linane or Scanlon (the local member), please do so. Also, if your local MTB club and trailcare group would be prepared to offer support to the Gold Coast MTB Club (gcmtb.com.au), we have more chance of retaining and improving the Nerang MTB trail system, but also bringing more attention to the needs of multiple other users who benefit from trail access to the park. Some of these groups have come forward in defense of the MTB trail system citing loss of access to nature for kids and families in a park they love too.
What Nerang State Forest, Conservation Park and National Park offers is so much more valuable than the land itself and I do not mean to undervalue that at all. It is a place valued by locals and visitors alike. We cannot afford to lose those trails.
This matter is not dead. Some time back I contacted the state opposition leader, David Chrisafulli. He took an interest in our problem when QPWS first proposed this plan 3 years ago. I received a reply yesterday stating the shadow environment minister Sam O'Connor, a Gold Coaster, has been briefed. He has requested a meeting with Minster for Environment Linane to discuss the Nerang MTB system. David Chrisafulli and/or Sam O'Connor would like to arrange a meeting with MTB stakeholders on the trails. Those people have been advised and hopefully we can get media and political support to prevent a travesty.
I fear QPWS intends to quickly pass this draft management plan and move machines into the park ASAP. Based on their past efforts, they will use small machines to roughly dig up the tread, cover it with deadfall timber and leave it unrideable. I have not previously seen evidence of attempted revegetation or even graded rehabilitation from the land manager and this is a massive project, not contained like Norco Flow and Wimps. This and the fact they are responsible for quantifiable fine sedimentation of park waterways from their service roads, should be enough to put a stop on any decommissioning. However, that is doubtful without ongoing advocacy, public exposure and political support.
Please keep up the good fight for Nerang, because it may be a test case for other Qld State, Conservation and National Parks trail systems, or potential systems. If you have media contacts, access to your local member, the inclination to correspond with Minister Linane or Scanlon (the local member), please do so. Also, if your local MTB club and trailcare group would be prepared to offer support to the Gold Coast MTB Club (gcmtb.com.au), we have more chance of retaining and improving the Nerang MTB trail system, but also bringing more attention to the needs of multiple other users who benefit from trail access to the park. Some of these groups have come forward in defense of the MTB trail system citing loss of access to nature for kids and families in a park they love too.
What Nerang State Forest, Conservation Park and National Park offers is so much more valuable than the land itself and I do not mean to undervalue that at all. It is a place valued by locals and visitors alike. We cannot afford to lose those trails.
Flow-Rider
Burner
I don't think I'd put Borra on any application, they've really poked the bear's eyes of the worst environmental groups in SE Qld. Come across as all nice and helpful but barely do anything meaningful for the MTB community unless it involves some type of fame. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Scanlon is the minster you got to win over, she's got all power under Palaszczuk.
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Scanlon is the local member, but no longer minister for environment. That is Minister Linane and she is the one who may sign off on the plan. Hopefully the opposition and club can leverage her for some common sense. Scanlon has been invisible since making out in the media that MTB was getting a 900k boost.
The letter template BORRA posted is also linked through the GCMTB website. It is worth checking out.
Ridenparadise
Likes Bikes and Dirt
I just heard back from Chrisafulli's office. They have contacted the club and are moving forward with a meeting.
Flow-Rider
Burner
A new Draft Plan of Management released by QPWS outlines a plan to drastically reduce the total amount of singletrack in Nerang National Park based on "inferred" and "limited" information. Local mountain bikers are obviously upset, but so are the Kombumerri Traditional Owners, hikers and trail runners.
flowmountainbike.com
Queensland Parks and Wildlife aiming to close legacy trails reducing Nerang network by nearly half
This Draft Plan of Management would close legacy trails at Nerang but it appears to be based on "inferred" and "limited" information
flowmountainbike.com