Narooma Mountain Bike Club push for South Coast to become a mountain biking mecca

Eden's 56-kilometre hub and Narooma's completed 105-kilometre parks are both expected to open in April, adding to the 50 kilometre of single track already opened in Tathra and seven kilometres of trail in Bermagui.

Mogo will become the biggest South Coast mountain bike park in the next couple of years. Approval for 125 kilometres of trail to add to the 30 kilometres of existing track is expected in early January.

There is potential to one day link the hubs, allowing bikers to travel from Eden right through to Mogo.

Eurobodalla Shire Council is expected to determined a start date for the Mogo network in the next fortnight, to then develop the park in two stages.

The first, around 80 to 90 kilometres between Mogo and Batemans Bay, is scheduled for completion towards the end of 2023. The second, about 50 to 60 kilometres, will likely be finished by mid-2024.

Shane Spicer, project coordinator for Mogo Trails, said the hope is Australia can soon boast the region as a world-class destination, the same way Canada now pushes British Colombia, not just Whistler.

Mr Spicer said mountain biking has been identified as a high-growth industry and mountain bikers tended to spend more than other visitors.

"It's really an economic growth project and there's a lot of opportunity for new business development and investment around the region," he said.

"That goes beyond your Airbnbs and your food and beverage. If you look at other destinations, they've got shuttle services and other kind of logistics that help people move around without vehicles."

The Mogo mountain bike park has been designed to allow cyclists staying in Mogo or Batemans Bay to roll out of bed and roll onto the trails.

Mr Spicer said Mogo, Narooma and even Tathra will all have a slightly different flavor.

"There's some pretty special places out in the forest that not many people know about," he said. "We'll be able to take users past some amazing places."

The Narooma park has been divided into five zones including a section where riders can pedal along and enjoy the nature and a downhill section the recently established Narooma Mountain Bike Club will consider running shuttles from.

Tom Mallet, Dirt Art trail construction manager, said they've designed a park with both his mum and his trail building colleague, a world cup mountain bike racer, in mind.

"There's lots of different styles of riding and it's beautiful wilderness to pedal around in," Mr Mallet said.

The park had about 35 kilometres of homegrown trail and Dirt Art began putting in an additional 65 kilometres in 2022.

Originally from Canberra, Mr Mallet has been on the road full-time for the last few years building trails, a job that hardly existed in Australia 10 years ago.

"There's just been a massive rise in it lately and projects are getting bigger and bigger," he said.

"There's definitely more of a call for people to get into this sort of thing."

He said the key to good design was fitting the brief of the trail and just how fun it was within that category.

"When you put tires to dirt at the end of the build, you get confirmation of whether you've done a good job or not.

"Seeing other trail crew and outsiders when they're open to the public have fun on those trails, is like the biggest confirmation that we've done the right job."

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Narooma Montain Bike park's establishment was ramped up in 2022 after the project was awarded a $3.9 million grant through the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery funding.

Prior to that, Georgie Staley and David O'Brien were out in the Bodalla State Forest with a couple of picks and shovels digging themselves.

The Narooma business owners established about 30 kilometres of track before and after work at their jewellery shop over several years.

The pair have since worked alongside Forestry Corp for approvals, fought for funding, hired a trail building team and established the Narooma Mountain Bike Club.

Ms Staley said while travelling almost 15 years ago, they'd noticed the benefits mountain biking was having for small towns, particularly in the United States and New Zealand.

"We thought, why not here?" she said.

Mr O'Brien said they kept chipping away, despite being two of only a handful of Narooma riders.

He said eventually, they came across the first tyre mark that didn't belong to them on the trails.

"That was success," he said.

"It surprises me now how many local people are out here riding every weekend."

Ms Staley said they're now seeing people from all over the country show up at Narooma, each visitor with their own reason for having fallen in love with the sport.

"For me, it's all about just getting out in nature," she said.

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