Tenterfield to become international hub for tourism and biking as funding announced

Tenterfield will become one of Australia’s leading adventure tourism hub following an announcement of $4m of funding to build a state of the art mountain bike trail. Read the exciting plans for the region.

Kerri Hampton, Angry Bulls Director Joseph Smith & the hon Scott Barrett outside Tenterfield Saddler (Photo: Supplied)

A prominent border town has been announced as a future hotbed of adventure tourism following a federal government grant worth millions to bring a state of the art mountain bike trail to the town.

While Tenterfield on the NSW border only has a population of around 4000, it’s expected the project will bring 25 jobs to the region as well as a flock of tourists once it’s done.

The $4.1m in funding provided by the NSW Government will kick off the first stage of the Angry Bull Mountain Bike Trail and was expected to turn the town of Tenterfield to an internationally recognised mountain biking destination and adventure tourism hub.

The first stage of the project was expected to create a mammoth 116km of trails in and around the town, making it the longest network of trails in the country once finished.

Kerri Hampton, Angry Bulls Director Joseph Smith and Scott Barrett outside Tenterfield Saddler mountain bike club on Wednesday (Photo: Supplied)

Nationals MP Scott Barrett announced the project on Wednesday and said the trails would be “world class”, placing Tenterfield and the wider region on the map as a nationally significant tourism destination.

“This project will see 177km of world class trails for mountain bike riders of all abilities, including adaptive trails and tracks for walkers,” Mr Barrett said.

Once operational it’s believed Angry Bull Mountain Biking Trails would attract at least 35,000 additional visitors to Tenterfield each year, generating $4.3m of additional tourist expenditure annually, as well as the jobs, to the Tenterfield economy.

Angry Bull director Joseph Smith said the project would not just turn Tenterfield into an adventure tourism capital for the area, but also get younger people to stay in the town.

“We needed to make an economic development, the town is struggling a bit, we’ve had droughts, floods and bushfires, so we started Angry Bull two years ago,” Mr Smith said.

“The trail will spawn other developments in the private sectors, businesses will come to the region and say ‘hey, I can start a tour company or a guided walking company, the whole range of adventure tourism could come to the region’, which is the bigger play.”

However, the development won’t stop at mountain biking, with room for walking trails, guided camping, four-wheel driving and more possible for expansion.

The project will generate $4.3M of additional tourist expenditure annually as well as creating jobs locally (Photo: Supplied)

Mr Smith said Angry Bull was focused on ensuring 60 per cent of their trails were all abilities accessible, to ensure that everyone regardless of mobility issues or disabilities could enjoy the splendour of the region.

There were also plans in the future to link with trails and business in other villages in the Tenterfield Shire and surrounding areas, including Drake, Liston, Urbenville, Jennings, Stanthorpe, Kyogle and Glen Innes.

Stage one of Angry Bull Mountain Biking Trails was expected to be completed in early 2025, with construction beginning in mid-2023.