Victoria’s secret dirt bike underworld revealed
DRONES and spy cameras hidden in trees have busted open the secret world of illegal motorbike racing deep in the Victorian bush. See what they found.
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DRONES and spy cameras have busted open the secret world of illegal motorbike racing deep in the Victorian bush.
More than 200km of illegal tracks have been found in one park alone during a crackdown targeting motorcyclists who sneak in to protected areas to ride in clandestine competitions.
Dirtbag dirt bikers have also been sprung in the act by stealthy rangers who map the trails and monitor their event plans before surprising them in the bush.
PARAPLEGIC DETERMINED TO GET BACK ON BIKE
POLICE TO HIT DIRT TRACKS AND TRAILS
Fines totalling more than $30,000 have recently been dished out to riders thumbing their noses at the law, during a blitz on the illicit racing ring.
Whisperings of the secret meet-ups spread through word-of-mouth and hidden social media pages, enticing riders from across Australia.
The resultant damage to national parks is expected to take a decade to fix.
Authorities are now kicking their operation into a higher gear to catch the bush hoons, mounting surveillance cameras on trees to spy on the rogue groups.
Motorcyclists who flee police and rangers are then tracked down by drones flying overhead, filming their every move.
The Great Otway National Park on the Great Ocean Road has become a key focus, amid the discovery that riders were competing in an illegal version of a world-class five-day endurance race in Romania, known as the “Romaniacs”.
Rangers found signs and hundreds of kilometres of illegal trails snaking through protected bushland and creek beds.
It has become clear to authorities they’re not dealing with people unwittingly riding in the wrong areas but well-organised groups deliberately flouting the law.
Law-breaking tactics include covering numberplates with duct tape to avoid identification.
Trail biking is allowed on thousands of kilometres of designated tracks across the Otways and other parks and forests, but it is illegal to ride off-road on public land.
Whether parks should be used for recreation or for rehabilitation — and how to strike the right balance — has long been a topic of debate.
Riders have raised concerns about the impact of closing sections of the Otways as well as the closure of motocross trails at Barabool and Breakwater in Geelong, fearing a lack of trails would entice people to sneak into protected areas instead.
“Force everyone into being ‘outlaw’ riders. On the bright side, I always ride better when being chased,” one motorcyclist wrote on a dirt bike forum.
Law-abiding dirt bikers fear the behaviour of rogue riders could encourage authorities to impose more bans.
Otway Trail Riders club president John O’Dowd said most riders respected the law and the bush but those sneaking into protected areas gave the sport a bad name.
“There are plenty of areas across the Otways to ride — designated tracks,” Mr O’Dowd said. “It (illegal riding) is jeopardising the sport.
“It’s a great sport and we’re lucky to have the park on our doorstep so we don’t want to see it locked up.”
Parks Victoria ranger team leader Scott Nicholson said intelligence gathered during the operation had helped authorities know where and when to target illegal activity.
“The further we get into the operation, we’re finding people are getting a little more evasive or going to greater lengths to obscure numberplates,” he said.
“Not everyone pulls over (at roadblocks). A lot of the time they ride off.
“Because we’ve been mapping all the illegal tracks, we can know where they go.”
Mr Nicholson said rangers were confident they knew who the ringleaders were.
About 60 people so far have been slapped with fines of up to $1773 for various offences relating to illegal bike and 4WD activity, concealing plates and setting illegal fires. Another 25 are expected to be interviewed.