Dirt bike wheels in motion
LNP wants to double biking trails
TOOWOOMBA’S mountain biking community has hailed a bold plan from the Queensland Opposition to ramp up adventure tourism by doubling the region’s biking trails.
LNP tourism spokesman David Crisafulli and Toowoomba MP Trevor Watts revealed the plan at Jubilee Park yesterday, which could cost roughly $8 million.
Toowoomba Mountain Bike Association president Roderick Hickey said he was excited at the prospect of building on the roughly 30,000 annual visitors to the region’s trails.
“We are super excited – we could not be more excited from this announcement,” he said.
“Around 30,000 riders have been here in the past year, (and) the demographic of a mountain biker sits in a range and an income where you’re able to travel and do that.
“We have an airport where people can fly in and be on trails within half an hour and get an experience they can’t get anywhere else.”
Mr Watts said the plan was devised between himself and the club while the Newman Government was in power.
He said there was hope Tourism Minister Kate Jones would listen to the proposal.
“If we can get to 50km or 60km of track and add some facilities, we know people flood here from the south-east corner,” he said.
“I’m very confident that we can get this up the priority list.”
Mr Crisafulli said comments made by new Tourism and Events Queensland chair Brett Godfrey about fast-tracking adventure tourism made this project more viable.
“He was one of the key operators in opening up Tasmania to adventure tourism,” he said,