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Illawarra Mountain Bike Alliance

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20.01.2022 Reminder for the MTB meeting tomorrow night at the Steelers Club! Starts 7.30pm, get there early and enjoy a few drinks and a meal! Will be great to see you there!

18.01.2022 It’s Time For You To Tell Us What You Want MTB Community Meeting - Steelers Club (Upstairs Function Room), Tue 11 Feb 2020, 7:30pm As many of you already know, IMTBA reps have been attending a series of NPWS-led advisory group (AG) meetings over the past few months to discuss possible solutions for an Illawarra Escarpment MTB Trail Network. With 3 meetings completed and just 1 more to be held in late Feb, crunch time is fast approaching for this important regional project. ... During our 3rd meeting, a number of trail network options were presented to, and discussed by the group and, prior to attending the final meeting to put forward our thoughts on the best option, we felt that it was essential to present those options to you, the MTB community, to get your feedback. After all, it’s always been our aim to be a representative voice for the wider Illawarra MTB community. For the past few months we’ve been bound by the AG terms of reference and have been unable to discuss the details of discussions that have been held. However, we’re now able to share some important information with you, so that you can better understand the process so far and have your say about what happens next. At this important meeting, we’ll be presenting the 3-4 different trail network options that have been discussed by the AG, we’ll outline what we see as the pros & cons of those various options and there’ll be ample opportunity for you to ask questions and make comments. Before we attend the final AG meeting, later in the month, we hope to have received clear direction from the wider MTB community as to how it wants to be represented. For those unable to attend the meeting on the 11th, we’ll also post the details of the trail network options here and on our website, along with a simple voting tool, to allow you to express your preference. But, if it’s at all possible, we strongly encourage you to attend the meeting at Steelers Club to hear the full story, ask questions, make your voice heard and let us know how’d you like us to proceed. Speaking of the Steelers Club, they have been a great support to the local MTB community. Steelers have graciously given us the use of their function room again, free of charge, and also sponsor the IMTBA website (BTW, the newly renovated function room is more than twice the size of the original and is comfortably air conditioned, so there’s plenty of room for everyone). As a show of gratitude for their generosity and support, why not come early on the 11th and have dinner and/or a drink at the club, before attending the meeting? Even better, join the club and make it a regular... the food and drinks are great! We look forward to seeing you on Tue 11 Feb 2020 (7:30pm) at Steelers Club to discuss this vitally important next step in the Illawarra Escarpment MTB project.

13.01.2022 Let’s help out our Northern Neighbours! Details below, all it takes is one quick email! So easy!

12.01.2022 These are exciting times and this is a big step in the right direction! Network planning will hopefully be completed in October with this to form part of the updated draft Illawarra Escarpment Mountain Bike Strategy, which is due to be finalised next March. From the Illawarra Mercury article:...Continue reading

10.01.2022 And the great news keeps rolling in!! Cringila’s new mountain bike trails looking to be built from January 2021! Tender is now out to trail companies to complete stage 1. This includes 11.5km of beginner to intermediate trails including skills area and pump track!... A big thanks to all involved in this including the Wollongong Council who are fast making the Illawarra a cycling Mecca! Article from Illawarra Mercury: Wollongong City Council is charging ahead with its plan to create a mountain bike playground in the hills between Cringila and Berkeley, calling on contractors to build the first stage. Tender documents have called for companies to come forward with their plans to design and construct 11.5km of trails for beginner to intermediate riders and 3.1 km of walking trails through the almost 40-hectare site off Jarvie Road. The master plan for the Cringila HIlls precinct was signed off by councillors in March. Then, the council said the first stage of the bike park facilities would cost at least $1.5 million. When completed, the scenic but underused site will become a tourist and recreational attraction, which will also have walking trails, picnic areas and a new children's playground, as well as a skill park and pump track for bike riders. Work on the trails project is due to begin in January, and all going to plan, will be complete by July, the council specifications said. In tender documents, the council has requested that the trails be "a fun and free flowing network" with multiple long-distance riding loops and parts of the network designed to host cross country races. The successful company will also have to design and construct the trails with consideration to the "cultural, social and environmental value" of the area, protecting pockets of lowland dry-subtropical rainforest and minimising erosion. The design of the trails will need to integrate trail junctions, with clear trail directions and difficulty grade signage so that riders can assess the trail difficulty and plan their route based on their skill level. There will be 10 water crossings, made with rock-paving, raised boardwalks or reinforced plastic, timber and steel mesh bridges. The existing walking network will be improved to ensure safety for pedestrians by clearing overgrown vegetation, as well as improvements to the track width and the walking trail surface. The Cringila Hills plan is one of several cycling facilities under development in Wollongong, as the city prepares to host the UCI road cycling world championships in 2021.

09.01.2022 G'day team, Illawarra trail running club, the Seacliff Coasters, has established a 'change.org' petition, protesting the expansion of Russel Vale Colliery (link below). The proposed expansion has serious potential environmental implications, as well as further impeding access to our beautiful escarpment and its myriad hiking, running & MTB trails. Please support this important community initiative. https://www.change.org/p/nsw-department-of-planning-industr

09.01.2022 Escarpment trail push will go ahead without Mt Keira Summit Park, riders say

09.01.2022 Blue Mountains Tourism is currently conducting a survey to assist with MTB event tourism development in the Blue Mountains region and they appreciate if you could assist by completing the survey. Survey link: https://think.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9XYJXJVOUjlzun3

06.01.2022 Recent MTB Community Meeting If you didn’t have a chance make it to the recent MTB community meeting at Steelers, click on the link below to get a full update on what was presented & discussed. There’s a fair bit of background info in the post, because we felt it was important to give the historical context of the process so far and show how that’s directly affecting our next steps. ... So, grab a drink, have a read through the post (click on the link below) and don’t forget to lodge a vote for your preferred option... voting options are shown at the end of the post. http://www.illawarramtballiance.com.au/vote-now

04.01.2022 MTB Access Remains Part of Mt Keira Summit Park PoM At Monday night’s Wollongong City Council meeting (9 Dec 2019), Councillors voted unanimously in favour of Deputy Lord Mayor, Tania Brown’s amendment to the Mt Keira Summit Park Plan of Management (PoM). The amendment provides for 'safe access for bushwalkers and cyclists to the Summit Park' (i.e. off-road access from surrounding MTB trails on NPWS land). In addition, the amendment allowed for the PoM 'to be reviewed, if ne...eded, following finalisation of the NSW Government’s Illawarra Escarpment MTB Strategy, to assess whether there are any additional infrastructure requirements'. Finally, within the actual PoM (as opposed to the above amendments), under ‘Permissible Uses and Developments’, it says, ’New trails/trail sections may be developed to provide beginner mountain bike opportunities as part of a broader Escarpment Mountain Bike Strategy’. This is a significant step forward in the overall push towards establishing a comprehensive MTB trail network across the Illawarra Escarpment. The IMTBA sincerely thanks all of the Councillors for decisively endorsing the strong community call for mountain bikers to be allowed safe, off-road access to the Summit Park. Please take the time to echo our thanks to the Council by personally writing to them... a few lines is all it takes. A genuine show of gratitude from the mountain biking community will only serve to reinforce that Council’s continued support for our cause is well placed. Email addresses for the Councillors can be found here... https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/yo/your-council-officials

04.01.2022 The IMTBA is supportive of all initiatives taken by local & state government to develop an integrated cycling strategy for our region. While the emphasis of this strategy document relates to road/commuter cycleways, mention is made of the Cringila Hills MTB park development. Please take this opportunity to provide feedback to Wollongong City Council that, while this is a positive move for the region, it doesn't go far enough, when it comes to a fully-integrated cycling strategy for the Illawarra. As a MTB community, let's make it very clear that council should be including provision for cycling pathways to proposed escarpment MTB trail locations, as well as suitable infrastructure in support of those venues.

04.01.2022 What a brilliant initiative. As it happens, we’ve discussed a very similar program for Aboriginal youth, right here in the Illawarra. We just need to get those legal trails sorted.

03.01.2022 With submissions closing this Friday, 31 Jan 2020, there’s still time to make an online submission in support of the Master Plan for a MTB trail network in the Cringila Hills. If you haven’t done so already, please follow the link, sign in to the Wollongong City Council site and answer 3 simple questions about the benefits of this Master Plan. This plan represents an excellent place to start, when it comes to free, publicly available MTB facilities in the region. So let’s g...et behind this brilliant initiative. Make your submission now. https://www.haveyoursaywollongong.com.au/cringila-hills

03.01.2022 Thanks to the local Illawarra MTB community who showed up in force at Steelers last night to get an update on the escarpment MTB strategy. There was no shortage of positive energy in the room and we had a lively & productive Q&A session... a fantastic opportunity to clarify a range of issues. For those unable to attend last night's meeting, we'll be posting an online version of the presentation very soon, including an opportunity for you to indicate your preference from amongst the various options that are currently on the planning table. So stay tuned and definitely stay engaged. We're getting dangerously close to the pointy end of the project now.