First Mountain Bike Trails in inner Melbourne to open this weekend
Published on 09 October 2019
Take a ride on the wild side at Maribyrnong’s newest adventure destination at Quarry Park, Footscray.
Maribyrnong City Council has created its first mountain bike trail that invites riders from beginners to advanced, to explore the graded trails, discover the skills park and pump tracks or test gravity on the dirt jumps and more.
Council began planning for the development of the track in 2016 with BikeWest and undertook extensive consultation. Mountain bike experts Dirt Art were engaged to refine the design, construction began on the project in late 2018.
The 1,400 metres of track is located just 5km from the Melbourne central business district and is expected to attract riders from across Melbourne - including many families and children who will be able to utilise the facility to learn new bike skills and progress to new challenges.
Local schools are also expected to make the most of the trails, community group ‘BikeWest’ secured a Council Community Grant to buy bike trailers to help schools transport students and bikes to and from the site.
Outside of Lysterfield Park in the far eastern suburbs, the Quarry Park Mountain Bike Trails facility offers the first and only mountain bike circuit in inner Melbourne.
The Victorian Government contributed $100,000 towards the initiative through Sports and Recreation Victoria and Maribyrnong City Council funded an addittional $440,000 to the project.
The new Quarry Park mountain bike trails will be officially opened by Maribyrnong Mayor and Ms Katie Hall, Member for Footscray, this Saturday 12 October.
Free community event
Saturday 12 October, 11am – 1pm
Riding demonstrations and activities will be on offer along with a free sausage sizzle, ice creams and coffee.
A word from the Mayor, Cr Martin Zakharov:
“Council is committed to providing spaces for many different types of recreational activities within public open space and identified cycling as one of the most popular recreation activities in Maribyrnong, however we had limited options for off-road cycling facilities.
“We couldn’t be happier to now have this new mountain bike trail and we are excited to be able to open it officially this weekend for the whole community to enjoy,” said Cr Zakharov.