South Hobart’s bumpy track gets a much-needed council makeover
A beloved local shortcut has been officially reopened with a vastly improved surface, much to the delight of eight-year-old Ruby Vercoe, who penned a letter to council to help get the job done.
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A beloved local shortcut, affectionately known as the “bumpy track” in South Hobart, has been officially reopened with a vastly improved surface, much to the delight of residents, especially eight-year-old Ruby Vercoe.
Ruby, who lives in South Hobart, was so concerned about the track’s plight that she penned a letter to the council.
For Ruby, using the track is a “healthy way to get to school without using a car”, and it’s heavily used by those in her neighbourhood.
The bumpy track, also known as the Marlyn Road Fire Trail, links the Hobart Rivulet Track with South Hobart above the Strickland Ave bridge.
Before its upgrade, the track lived up to its name.
Ruby described it as “scary”, particularly because it went “really downhill and a lot of the rocks would move”. While she never fell, her friend did.
Ruby’s dad Jarrah Vercoe explained that the track was “pretty rugged and very, very rough to ride on,” with a surface made of “a lot of stones”.
Now, the transformation is complete, Ruby says she loves the new track because it’s “smooth and you can go up the big bumps”, saying she uses it “a lot of times every week” for both school commutes and when “riding somewhere”.
Mr Vercoe echoed Ruby’s sentiment.
“It’s safer, it’s smoother, and we’re already hearing people who now ride down here who wouldn’t ride down here before,” he said.
“So it’ll encourage more people to ride their bikes. It’s a good connection with the existing Rivulet track and it means that you don’t have to ride a big chunk of Strickland Ave so it’s a shortcut and it gets you off the road.”
Nathan Duhig, another South Hobart resident at 57 years old, also praised the improvements. He said his wife, previously “very reluctant to ride down here” and had “point blank refused to ride up it,” was “absolutely thrilled” to use the new track.
For her, it saves “three to five minutes getting to work” and “about 10 minutes getting home”.
“It’s a real win-win,” Mr Duhig said. “It gets people off the road.”
City of Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said for many South Hobart kids tackling the ‘bumpy track’ on the ride down to school had been “a rite of passage”.
“It was a rugged, rough ride, both up and down, full of rocks and stones to negotiate and eroded gutters,” Ms Reynolds said.
“But thanks to a partnership project between the City of Hobart and Cascade Brewery, and driven by strong community interest, the bumpy track has received a much-needed upgrade (with) a fresh new surface.”
Ms Reynolds said many cyclists feel much safer riding up and down the new surface.
“It will keep people off the narrow Strickland Ave, which has some infamous icy patches in winter and is busy with cars and buses,” she said.
“We hope it will encourage more people to ride their bikes, which means healthier people and less cars on the road.”
Originally published as South Hobart’s bumpy track gets a much-needed council makeover
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