How to do it properly (Derby)

[mark22]

For those who may have missed the the "Taste of Landline" ABC on Derby. It makes the rest of Au look pretty ordinary, especially the piece meal approach to MTB tracks in SE Qld, jeezus a township that had 170 people can do this with a progressive thinking council acquiring State & Fed funding.

Repeats on ABC News 24 Sat 14/4 12:30pm or online Iview

 

[John U]

Series 3 Ep 22

 

[downunderdallas]

For those who may have missed the the "Taste of Landline" ABC on Derby. It makes the rest of Au look pretty ordinary, especially the piece meal approach to MTB tracks in SE Qld, jeezus a township that had 170 people can do this with a progressive thinking council acquiring State & Fed funding.

Repeats on ABC News 24 Sat 14/4 12:30pm or online Iview

Agreed WA is moaning about a decline in tourism numbers here is Tassie killing it at MTB tourism while we celebrate 10km or so of new trails in 2-3 years. Certainly AU/NZ could be a major MTB off season destination for the Northern Hemisphere. Alice Springs is spending $12m, albeit looks like you'll need to pay $50 a day to ride the trails (small change in the scheme of travel expenses - still not sure if it's the right thing to do) if we can make ourselves a MTB Mecca as a country it would seem there is significant opportunity to be had.

 

[ozzybmx]

Shit ! Just Googled it... $50 a day, how could locals ride stuff http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-...me-mountain-biking-hotspot-fees-shock/9605194

The lands are free... if you want to ride, ride. How the f$%k can you charge someone $50 to ride trails that they have ridden for years. It doesn't matter how much the NT put in, it's all about attracting people there, spending cash in restaurants, pubs and other local stuff.
They can stick the fee... head to Derby, even the local campsite is free, spend your cash on shuttles, beer, food and coffee.

 

[Knuckles]

$50? Fuck off, they've got one hill, an you can't even walk on it, let alone ride on it.

It's pretty barren and there's fuck all vegetation other than dick grass and wire weed, how are they going to police it? Build a fence and bill Tassie for it? What about if you ride parallel to the trail, but not on it?

 

[mark22]

Looks to me like a Trail ride that going to meander through the landscape not at all like Derby but more like the equivalent of the Queen Charlotte Track in NZ, 70km which cost $18 NZ for a 5 consecutive day pass with plenty of accommodation options along the way from camping to really nice resorts and luggage transfers.

This is not going to work if people have to pay $50 a day, especially for locals who may want to just go out and do part of the track as day ride or are they not part of the plan?
Wrong Wrong Wrong!

There are plenty of models to base this sort of stuff the NT government could base this project on in both NZ and US to see what has worked.

 

[rowdyflat]

Will be interesting to see.
You cant just repeat Tassie's tourist model anywhere .
It needs to be accessible from major population centres reasonable weather, interesting terrain,and well built tracks.
It has to be extraordinary otherwise $50 per day is a silly business model when everywhere else is free.
BTW for mtbiking Australia will not be a northern hemisphere winter destination.
USA has the southern states and Europe has Spain Turkey and Morocco , its much cheaper and better terrain .

 

[Haakon]

I'd argue that Derby has a bit of a fee attached in the form of the shuttles. The trails are very much designed to need shuttles - Atlas even is a slog to get to the top and Blue Derby is long drive from town.

Add in that they actively discourage self shuttling and make the top of Blue Derby hard to find for newbies... I get it, its a business and its all about bringing cash to town. But it still grates a little...

 

[DMan]

[QUOTE="mark22, post: 3176697, member: 88026" with a progressive thinking council acquiring State & Fed funding.

Repeats on ABC News 24 Sat 14/4 12:30pm or online Iview[/QUOTE]

That's the key unfortunately. I'm involved with our club putting in trails in our town at the moment. We've done a lot of hard work with no real money at a HUGE benefit to our local region, but if we have the budget that Derby had the options would have been be limitless. You can only do what you can do

 

[mark22]

Mate when its said and done you can shuttle yourself at Derby for free it is not hard. Trailforks and Google maps geez man the start of Blue Tier has a big arse timber poles and sign you ride through you can see from the carpark.
But who drive wants to miss out on riding Blue Tier or Atlas.

My point with the NT plan of $50 is not to compare it to Derby but base it more on another model like Queen Charlotte NZ or Moab.
It's not going to be a gravity type track more a Trail ride.
What local will pay $50 a day to ride the trail it's not the way forward.

 

[mark22]

[QUOTE="mark22, post: 3176697, member: 88026" with a progressive thinking council acquiring State & Fed funding.

Repeats on ABC News 24 Sat 14/4 12:30pm or online Iview

That's the key unfortunately. I'm involved with our club putting in trails in our town at the moment. We've done a lot of hard work with no real money at a HUGE benefit to our local region, but if we have the budget that Derby had the options would have been be limitless. You can only do what you can do[/QUOTE]

IMHO you need to start further up the food chain like Council to lobby State Gov to get that sort of funding, the Local Bike club is not going to have a hope of getting it.

Or there is the Pay to play Maydena model (Leased Crown Land) be interesting to see how that plays out long term with the crappy SW weather, bloody awesome tracks though.