Blue Derby: Landslides a ‘major problem’, trail may be abandoned
Two major landslides have caned Tasmania’s mountain biking capital, with a new trail to be possibly abandoned. The mayor says the damage justifies a controversial new council proposal.
Launceston
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THE mayor of a northern Tasmanian council says he believes his organisation will be on the hook for at least $500,000, after two landslides caused mayhem on its internationally renowned network of mountain bike trails.
Dorset Mayor Greg Howard (inset) said its possible that one of Blue Derby’s newest trails, ‘Hazy Days’, named for late Derby icon Jeffrey Hayes, who died in 2020 from a brain aneurysm, may be “abandoned” altogether.
Mr Howard said October’s record-breaking rain event resulted in two landslides on Blue Derby. The slides followed widespread flooding after some locations in the state’s North received 400mm of rain.
He said he expects the repair job to cost at least $500,000.
The more serious of the two landslides has affected Hazy Days, Axehead and Air Ya Garn – one wag rechristened the trail, Air Ya Gone.
It would be a “huge job” to repair these trails, with Hazy Days’ future in doubt, Mr Howard said.
“We are still waiting on engineering advice. Clearly we need to stabilise the landslip before we can start doing anything with that,” he said.
With the peak season approaching quickly, he hopes the advice will be received “sooner rather than later,” so work can begin.
The second landslip occurred above the steep face of Briseis Hole, resulting in debris strewn across a fourth trail.
Mr Howard said the landslides should have little impact on the upcoming Enduro World Series, one of international mountain biking's signature events, which is due to host an Asia-Pacific leg at Blue Derby in February.
He said only one of the three trails impacted by the more serious landslide was due to be used during the EWS event, and that could be “easily swapped out”.
Mr Howard said the financial hit to council from rectification works showed that a controversial recent plan to slug Dorset short-stay accommodation providers with upgraded waste charges, was justified.
At council’s July meeting, waste charges for short-stay properties in Derby, Branxholm and Winnaleah were bumped up 2400 per cent, from $120 to $3020, while towns elsewhere in the region went from $120 to $1920.
Derby short-stay operators would be able to receive a remission on their waste charges up to $2900, provided they used council’s new accommodation booking platform, which is expected to raise $150,000 a year towards trail maintenance.
Mr Howard admitted there had been a “bit of pushback” from the short-stay sector – it’s understood about 250 properties across the region are affected – but they represented about 3 per cent of Dorset.
“The other 97 per cent are in favour of it,” he said.
“Some of them are genuine and they were probably incorrectly charged. Most of it wasn’t, they just didn’t want to pay more money.
“It’s pretty hard for them to argue community should fork out (to repair Blue Derby) just for them to make massive profits.”
At October’s meeting, the waste charge was reduced in Winnaleah and Branxholm.
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