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Mountain bike action at Derby, Wild Mersey & kunanyi/Mt Wellington

Wild Mersey and Derby

Mountain biking is still being seen as a regional economic saviour by the federal government, which has awarded more than $1 million in regional grant funding to the Wild Mersey and Blue Derby tracks.

Kentish Council will receive $850,000 from the Building Better Regions Fund to extend stage 2 of the Wild Mersey trails and make a start on stage 3.

The Wild Mersey network will extend more than 100 km when completed, with stages 2 and 3 adding another 35 km to the 15 km already opened at Warrawee in Latrobe, and the 17.5 km due to open in May this year in Railton.

Stage 2 also involves a 12.6 km scenic trail link between the Latrobe and Railton trailheads.

The network is a collaboration between Kentish and Latrobe councils and has received state and federal funding to get this far. The councils expect the track network to attract close to 140,000 annual visits when finished.

Wild Mersey tracks are a mix of green and blue-rated tracks, with one black-rated track in the opened section at Latrobe.When finished it aims to have a mix of cross-country, downhill and gravity enduro tracks, and will include a pump track.

The Dorset Council has also received $200,000 towards its $400,000 track to link the townships of Branxholm with Derby.

Branxholm is just down the road from Derby and already offers services and accommodation for mountain bike riders, so connecting the two towns by bike trail makes sense.

No plans are publicly available for the route for the trail.

kunanyi/Mount Wellington call for comment

The City of Hobart is asking riders how they use the mountain bike track network on kunanyi/Mt Wellington to determine where the next improvements could be made.

The City is asking riders to fill out a survey at https://yoursay.hobartcity.com.au/mountain-bike-network before 28 March.

The survey covers where, when and how long you ride, where and how you access the trails, what types of rated trails are missing and your suggestions for improving the network. 

The City is currently working on the Missing Link project which will create three new tracks on kunanyi/Mt Wellington to create more continuous routes.