NO PLACE LIKE HOME: ONE CLUB’S EFFORT TO RECLAIM THEIR TRAILS

Imagine you’ve found this friendly, welcoming mountain bike club. One that has access to organised trails, maintained to a standard good enough to host some pretty serious races. Now imagine waking up one day to find out said trails are gone with no plan in place to bring them back.

That was exactly the scenario facing the Wollondilly-Macarthur MTB Club in 2017 when their local trails at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan were suddenly closed to the public. The reason? A weed. The broader Macarthur region, south-west of Sydney, had seen an infestation of a particularly nasty weed, African Olive. In the broader interests of the Garden, plans were put in place to confront the issue and while successful, they created a gaping MTB-shaped hole in the lives of many keen riders in the area.

We spoke with Club secretary Andrew Steele about the Club’s determination