Toowoomba council endorses revamp of escarpment mountain bike trail master plan including Prince Henry Drive Park
Plans have been renewed for 100km of mountain bike trails on the Toowoomba escarpment following a council vote, but the proposal already faces a challenge from environmentalists.
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The long-awaited $6.6m Toowoomba escarpment mountain bike trails master plan is set for a revamp following a council vote, but the project could hit a snag on its first hurdle.
Councillors voted at last week’s committee meetings to create detailed designs for a new plan using both Jubilee and Prince Henry Drive (PHD) Park.
It is the most significant step forward for the project since the council voted two years ago to pull Redwood Park from the plan following a concerted push by environmental activists to protect the delicate ecosystems.
It would create 60km worth of new trails, bringing the total number to 100km that is considered a requirement to meeting national guidelines and attract large events.
It also comes just months after the council terminated a $3.3m grant funding agreement with the federal government for the master plan under the old Building Better Regions Fund — only to apply for its successor and get rejected.
The TRC is now looking to apply for the state government’s SEQ Liveability Fund, which would require far less investment from the local government.
The idea to include PHD Park in the plan followed council’s purchase of the land encompassing it in recent years.
According to the report by council’s parks and recreation manager Sally Egan, the new proposal would ensure Toowoomba became a destination for mountain biking across Queensland.
“The updated concept design satisfies almost all of the defined guidelines for a nationally significant mountain bike destination, other than around the overall size of the park area, as defined in the AusCycling Australian Mountain Bike Guidelines,” she wrote.
“Some of the key requirements of the project that do meet the requirements include length/type/gradients/range of trails, number of loops, proportion of single track, trail hub and ancillary user facilities, carparking, and location like distance from airport, major highway, food and accommodation.”
The cost of creating detailed designs could be around $200,000, while Ms Egan informed the meeting the council would likely spend up to $550,000 every year maintaining the tracks to protect against erosion.
But the council already faces a fight, after environmental activists revealed it would refer the proposal to the federal government due to PHD Park featuring much of the same ecosystems as Redwood Park.
“This park being right next to Redwood has essentially the same biodiversity values as Redwood, and we’ve done enough of our own surveys there to satisfy ourselves of that,” Birdlife Southern Queensland’s Scot McPhie said in a letter to councillors on Wednesday.
“If there is a definite and endorsed plan of mountain bike tracks through Prince Henry Drive Park we will be referring this to the Federal Environment Minister under the EPBC Act because of the protected species and habitats in that park.
“We support the development of mountain bike tracks here, but not through important habitat, and Prince Henry Drive Park was not the alternate route that was proposed in my presentation to council a few years ago when the Redwood plan was first looked at.”
The existence of protected fauna and flora in PHD Park was expressed by Ms Egan during the meeting, however she believed trails could be designed to minimise impacts.
“There is no doubt PHD Park has ecological value – it does and is mapped as such and the same species of significance, vulnerable and endangered species in Redwood Park, are found in PHD Park,” she said.
“The work our team have done suggests we can work a trail configuration out that will mean any impact we have is not significant.”
Councillors Carol Taylor and Melissa Taylor both voiced concerns about the project’s traffic impacts for the residents of Prince Henry Heights, given Prince Henry Drive is the only road connecting the suburb to Toowoomba.
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