Youth petition the council to save their loved Mount Gibraltar bike trail

The petition via Change.org has called into question community consultation by the Wingecarribee Shire Council a year ago, which changed the area to an "ecological environmental" site.

When the Southern Highland News interviewed Janine McPherson and her 14-year-old son Tavish on the evening of Thursday, April 29 the petition had almost 950 signatures. However, by the time of publication on Friday, April 29 that number had increased to 1028.

Ms McPherson said she was disappointed by the council's response when they spoke with Wingecarribee representatives on Wednesday [April 26]. She felt that not much attention was paid to the number of people in support of their campaign.

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"They [the council] said that a year ago the area had community consultation and the trail was made into an ecological environmental area and we said that we weren't aware of that," Ms McPherson said.

"We asked them how far reaching that community consultation was? Because it didn't reach us and obviously it didn't reach the other 950 people who felt strongly that the trail should be maintained."

According to Ms McPherson, the council said that the tracks can't be there because of "koalas and gliders in the trees and because of liability".

"It's good that they want to do something but they want to build the kids a pump track or something, which doesn't address the type of riding they want to do," she said.

"The council want to look at alternatives but it wasn't the news that we wanted to hear. However, it was better than at first, when the council rangers visited the boys and said that after the school holidays the tracks and jumps that they've made would be dismantled."

According to Tavish not everybody uses the trails at the same time but on any given day there was "between 10 and 25" mountain bike riders on the trails.

Ms McPherson pointed out that there were worse things that Highland youths could be doing than getting out and having "clean fun in the fresh air".

"We didn't move to the Southern Highlands to be inside, we wanted them outside in the bush and in the nature and that's what they're doing," she said.

According to Ms McPherson and Tavish, the group takes great pride in keeping the trails clean and in good condition.

"They look after them. They help to clear the track so that people can walk on them; they pick up rubbish and bring it out of the bush in bags," Ms McPherson said.

Tavish described this type of mountain bike riding as "centered on a downhill trail and gravity based".

"It's mountain biking that's not so much up and down hills, which is more cross country," he said.

He's been riding for about four years now and says he loves being in that space.

"The trail is really good," Tavish said.

"We've maintained it and we've made it really, really nice. Also all the boys that go there, we're all really good mates."

The trail is used by kids from schools across the region, according to Ms McPherson.

"It's a really diverse group," she said.

"They've got a seven-year-old that rides out there that they look after; they've got boys in Year 9 and in Year 11 and all from different schools.

"They've got a boy with cerebral palsy and riding is really important to him to keep him moving. It's more than just a bike track, it's a community," Ms McPherson said.

Tavish described it as a cross section of the community.

"There's a decent crowd from Chev and a decent crowd from Oxley but we've still got a few outliers that have come from the Christian School; some that are homeschooled; there's also some kids from the public schools," he said.

Tavish and his mother were told by the council that Wingecarribee was working on "masterplans for mountain biking".

"But that's been in the pipeline for quite awhile yet nothing is happening," Ms McPherson said.

"I mean the council's rates have just all doubled for all of us."

The duo posed the question: "Why does the council have to shut the trail down before they build new tracks?"

"Why not let the kids use the tracks until there is an alternative option?" Ms McPherson said.

"I said to [the council] that especially after the COVID-19 lockdowns; the kids have been locked away and they need this more than anything else. A school counsellor signed the online petition saying that research showed that kids needed this for their physical and mental health.

"The takeaway was that they were open to working with us but that they were still pretty strongly of the mindset that it can't be in that spot," she said.

According to Ms McPherson, the council has backed off from their original deadline and said that there was no current work order in place. However, she pointed out that the council could change its mind on this "at any minute".

"They were thinking of building something on the David Wood Playing Fields; the soccer field at East Bowral. We said that we appreciated what they were trying to do but that it was a completely different thing; putting a pile of dirt on a flat area," she said.

"The other thing about where these trails are is that it's accessible for all the boys from across the region. We live half an hour away in Wildes Meadow and other people live half an hour away on the other side of Mittagong. The boys come from all different areas and they're able to catch the train there because it's right on the train line. It's accessible and it's safe."

Alternative options posed by the council included Welby and the Alexandra Lake tracks. However, Tavish said that these were cross country tracks, not gravity.

"And also, one of the other parents mentioned that riding along that road to get to Welby would be quite dangerous," Ms McPherson said.

At the moment there has been no suggestion by the council that the boys would be fined if they continued to use the tracks. However, Tavish was concerned that this was the unspoken next step.

"They haven't said anything about fines yet but I think if we continue to go back that will come into question," he said.

"The main message that I want the council to hear is for them to do nothing; in reality we're asking them for as little as we can; we just want them to do nothing.

"We are happy maintaining the track with our own tools and our own knowledge and skills; we're perfectly happy doing this because we can cater to the needs of the riding group as a whole whereas the council doesn't really know what we want or what we need."

Southern Highland News asked Tavish if he had an alternative option in mind?

"That's why riding on the Gib is so good, because it's right in the middle of Mittagong and Bowral," he said.

"There's really nothing that can replace it. Places like Mount Alexandria, it's over the other side and getting to the top of that would be a lot harder because there's not as many fire trails or roads.

"I think there could possibly be something over the other side of the Gib towards Bowral but I doubt that would be an option the council would support," Tavish said.

In terms of animal protection, Ms McPherson said the boys wanted to be as "environmentally sensitive as was possible". She said they were also open to education from the council on how best to achieve this.

"That's what we had hoped for, that the council would work with the boys," Ms McPherson said.

"And that's the upsetting thing; everybody talks about this generation always being on their screens, but when they try to get out and into the environment they're told 'no'. They love the environment, and that in turn when they get older is going to make them look after it.

"The boys come home covered in dirt; they've been there from dawn to dusk; they're absolutely exhausted and they just want to go to bed. It's everything that parents want for their children to experience," she said.

Tavish said he used the track every weekend depending on the weather and every day of the school holidays.

"We use it literally every day that we can," he said. "We're always there."

According to Ms McPherson an environmental officer at the council said that the trails were "discussed on a regular basis".

"One thing that was interesting when I was trying to contact the council ranger to see when they would be taking the tracks away; I couldn't get onto the rangers but I got onto an environmental officer at the council," she said.

"He said they regularly discussed the issue; that it would be pointless taking the tracks away because they would just go and build them 500m up from where they were and that would only create more damage as opposed to just maintaining the ones that they've already got and having someone work with them to make it a multi-purpose use area."

Southern Highland News approached Wingecarribee Shire Council for comment and communities and place director Adan Davis said: "The council absolutely supports outdoor recreation for our young community."

"There are a number of trails across Wingecarribee including the Welby mountain bike track. Looking to the future we want our young community to work with us on co-designing bike jumps and tracks. Bike tracks need to be planned in the right locations - balancing environmental conservation and recreation needs," Mr David said.

"Mount Gibraltar has been assessed in the past to be generally unsuitable due to a combination of the conservation value, soil conditions and topography. While they may have the best of intentions, it's ultimately not in the community's best interests for people, including kids, to be building things on public land without appropriate community consultation and planning.

"While the council is obligated to undertake our regulatory role when works on public land are reported, in this case by concerned community members, we do take a gentle approach with our young people," he said.

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