Protection of Oxford Falls

[unitec]

It has now been some time since local residents vandalized the gravity track at Oxford falls and after all the discussion on this site we don’t really have a plan to protect the good work being done by the fine men at the track recently. (Haven’t seen so many people getting around with smiles on their faces in ages)
As I see it, the increased numbers of riders that any track improvement ultimately brings makes the threat from locals a clear & present one however at the same time the solution could possibly be relatively simple. (Yeah Yeah I’m naïve)
I would like to gauge interest in the preparation of a letter to local residents pointing out some of the reasons why further vandalism would be against their own interests and offering to set up a forum between residents and riders where they can air there concerns in a non threatening environment. Obviously this wouldn’t suddenly make the track legal however as the land is outside NPWS jurisdiction and council usually only act on complaints from local residents this would go a long way to the protection of the track.
Happy to receive advice from one and all however in my view for this to work we would really need a core group of local riders & builders to come forward to help draft/review such a letter & perhaps form some type of group.
Thoughts?

 

[NickM91]

Although i'm yet to ride the oxford falls track, i want to badly and would be pretty bummed out if they were destroyed by anyone, be it residents, the council or the boogey man...

The idea you're putting forward seems great an i'm all for it, i'd just be careful because saying something like "would be against their own interests " could be seen as a threat or something along those lines.

Good luck with it and keep us posted!

Cheers

Nick

 

[Cuthbert]

Hi Unitec, PM'd you.

 

[Middo]

Unitec, Have you ever stopped to consider that the council and residents might think that is you who are the vandals? Having seen what was built, and reading posts about the way many riders behave, then they are probably justified in this view.

While we should encourage your efforts to deal with the council and residents, your emotive language will not help acheive the outcome that you want. Your view that the council and residents are in the wrong, is incorrect. Being level-headed, open to ideas, and prepared to make concessions, will be the way to acheive the desired goals. read the trails advocacy threads.

This subject has potential to be a great high profile test-case for trails access. Get it right, and Sydney's DH/freeride will benefit, get it wrong and you will make us look like dickheads.

 

[Mr Pants]

Too right!

Even better how about talking to Manly Warringah MTB Club who are already working on managing the area.

www.mwmtb.com

And the club is working on a new DH riding area that will be fully legal, so join the club and help us help you.

The main thing to remember is that this area does not have a long term future, it will be developed soon.

So:

Don't build new lines

No wood structures

Be as sweet as pie to the locals and keep quiet at the top of the track, you have plenty of time in the car trip back up to impress ya mates with tales of kore'ness.

If you see anyone not doing this, tell them off as it's everyone who will suffer.

 

[Chuckie]

I have to agree that some kind of dialogue needs to happen between the residents sooner or later. We need to get these guys on side.

There has been an increasing amount of riders there over the past 2 weekends. at Oxy, both XC & DH I still cant believe that people kept riding the DH line near the road in the wet. That trail is in a pretty bad state now and it will take a lot of work to repair, and I think we can safely say that those riding that line when it was wet, did not take the time to do any maintenance to repair the damage that they have done.

Guys if you see someone riding that track in the wet please ask them to use the old DH trail to the left as that trail drains quite well and is still a fun way to start your run. I am not sure why some would prefer to hack it thru mud & slosh, when they can take a fairly dry run going the other way

Not sure about the conditions of the XC track

Some of the observations made

* there has been lots of rubbish left at the top & bottom car parks
* People shuttling are blocking driveways both top and bottom to unload & load. DONT BLOCK THE DRIVWAYS!!!!
* Turn your music down!!

We need to ensure we dont P*ss the residents off any more. So if there could be some rational discussions between all parties I think it would be a good start

Mr Pants , we will be happy to support MWMTB club with their DH programme. Can you tell us more?

 

[F1234K]

Mr Pants , we will be happy to support MWMTB club with their DH programme. Can you tell us more?

Agreed, can you please tell us more? I spoke to a XC rider a couple of weeks back who said he was from the club and checking out Oxxy as they were thinking of trying to gain better access to the track for the riders.

That being said I think we already have a representative in the club for DH/FR don't we? Can somebody in the know please confirm one way or the other?

It would be great to see something official happen to the area.

 

[Chuckie]

Agreed, can you please tell us more? I spoke to a XC rider a couple of weeks back who said he was from the club and checking out Oxxy as they were thinking of trying to gain better access to the track for the riders.

That being said I think we already have a representative in the club for DH/FR don't we? Can somebody in the know please confirm one way or the other?

It would be great to see something official happen to the area.

Maybe Cuthbert has some more info for us?

 

[mr ufo]

Crusty come in .. Crusty come in ...

 

[Cuthbert]

Hi Guys,

I'm the club's DH coordinator. As alluded to above, development approval has been granted for a large area of land in oxford falls (including that on which the gravity tracks are located) and proposed development plans have been drawn up. There was a thread on here a while ago with a link to the development proposal. Whilst it may be another year or two, maybe more, before the bulldozers move in, but one thing is certain - we will lose the tracks in the not too distant future.

On a more positive note there will be a release of Council land within the next year that has been spoken of as a possible venue for a MTB park of sorts. This comprises an old tip site at the back of Belrose that is rapidly reaching the end of its life (due to close about mid this year I think...) and once the land has been appropriately rehabilitated is expected to be available for public recreation. Mind you, the MTB community is not guaranteed access to this area - we would likely be competing with a number of other user groups for use of the land. This is why MWMTB will be keeping in close contact with Council to ensure our voice is heard. I, and I'm sure everyone for that matter, would ideally love to see all riding disciplines catered for if we could obtain use of this land - eg few xc trails, couple of shortish DH tracks and also something for the freeride set. However, its really too early to speculate what may be possible... Keep in mind though that legal tracks on government land are scarce in Australia, legal gravity trails even more so and any form of legal freeride park almost non-existent. It will be a case of strength in numbers. At present the club has very few gravity riders on their books. Therefore I would encourage the local gravity set to join the club so when the time comes it can be demonstrated to Council that there is a large community in need of a legal local riding venue.....

For those that like to race, it is unlikely we will have our own legal track until if/when the Belrose site comes off. An option in the interim may be to approach other clubs about hosting joint races and and MWMTB riders could have their own points system/series. However, quite frankly I don't think the club currently has enough members who race DH regularly enough to justify this, so I haven't been exploring this option this year. As a first step I'd like to try to foster a bit more camaraderie amongst the local DH riders with the hope of rejuvenating the number who are members of the club. The larger the rider numbers the more resources will be available for our own series.

Back to the Oxy DH tracks. There is a small local crew who actively build and maintain the tracks - some create wooden structures, some maintain/enhance the more pure DH lines. However, there is an agreement between those who undertake the track work that the trails are there for all to enjoy. This means that any rebuild will ensure that new woodwork is not constructed in such a way that it impedes access on existing tracks so that all riding styles can be catered for. Hopefully this will ensure a bit more harmony between those that ride there so that we won't see a return of the DH vs freeride spat that errupted last year.

And now to the involvement of MWMTB. Unfortunately the club can't be involved with any contruction of trails/structures on land without permission from the owners for obvious reasons. It may be possible for the club to contact the land owners, in this case the Aboriginal Land Council (ALC), to explore the option of MWMTB taking some management resposibility for the land and maintaining trails etc. I'm sure if the place was made 'official' there would be no shortage of volunteers to help run this. However, the extent that ALC would permit legitamite access to the land remains an unknown entity and has the risk of backfiring. Whether you love or hate the woodwork and the sizable drops/gaps, these are a liability issue waiting to happen for a landowner. Therefore contacting the landowner has the potential to leave us in a worse position than we are currently in. Something to consider............ I'd be happy to contact ALC to open discussions, however, I wouldn't want to do this without the full support of the local DH community...

Dave Yonge
DH Coordinator, MWMTB

 

[Chuckie]

Good post Dave

happy to join up MWMTB and support the cause.

I know a lot of local DH'ers have joined other clubs like CCMTB & WSMTB so maybe this might help bring more members in down the track

Hopefully we can all get together and be heard