Nerang National Park MTB Trail Co-design Project
The Nerang NP CoDesign project has now been completed after 2 years and 5 meetings with key stakeholders in response to the Ministers’ Statement above. GCMTB, NTCA and SoNFT representatives put together the report below that can be found over on our website.
Nerang National Park Trails CoDesign Report GCMTB_NTCA_SoNFT_11Sep2020
Register here to be notified when Public Submissions open on the Draft Nerang Management Plan which is likely in the next 4-8 weeks.
The Co-Design project focuses on the UNSANCTIONED trails as reported in the 2018 Dirt Art trail audit report and illegal trails built since the audit was conducted. Before any decisions on the UNSANCTIONED trails can be made, numerous assessments (Environmental, Ecological, Cultural Heritage) as well as social and recreational value studies need to be carried out to form a new management plan for Nerang National Park.
A number of interim actions were rolled out including the SANCTIONING of a NEW TRAIL and the closure of recent illegal/unsustainable trails. These works were completed in early 2022.
Action 1: Sanctioning of new trail. A new technical (Black grade) descending trail (~1.5km) was built. The trail corridor is on the West side of Centre Road Fire Road starting near top of three hills and run south. The trail was completed late 2021.
To make way for this new trail the unsanctioned Dr Down trail closed as it was an unsustainable fall line trail that has also caused significant impact to Upper Happy Valley trail. The runoff and erosion damage to Upper Happy Valley trail was too significant to mitigate and therefore, it is being closed to prevent further damage to the down slope Exits trail.
Action 2: Closure of illegal trails Built AFTER the 2018 trail audit.
These include the illegal trails built more recently in the Coombabah Creek riparian zone and in the critically endangered Lowland Vine Forest and Rainforest buffer. In addition, the illegal and unsustainable Bunny trail will be closed. This trail has poor alignment for drainage management and traverses shallow colluvium which becomes saturated from springs following wet periods.
