Trails

Lysterfield mountain bike tracks closed to ensure rider safety

Published Date

Immediate Release 8 February 2011

Recent heavy rains and extreme weather conditions have caused significant damage across Melbourne. Parks, tracks and trails in the Lysterfield area have been hit particularly hard.

Parks Victoria has closed the mountain bike trails in Lysterfield Park following last weekend’s heavy rainfall to ensure the safety of mountain bike riders and to guarantee the long term sustainability of the trails.

Lysterfield is one of the most popular Mountain Bike riding venues in and around Melbourne. It attracts around 140,000 riders per year but this is only one user group of many that use the park for recreational activities. 

The granitic soils around Lysterfield Park do not blend well with high concentrated use in wet conditions. While the numbers of mountain bike riders has increased to the park this year, so has the amount of rainfall, placing considerable pressure on the trails. 

Parks Victoria has a strong working relationship with a number of mountain bike rinding associations and has had experts onsite to assess the trails this week and decided they should be closed temporarily. Parks Victoria is committed to the future of mountain biking in parks and to ensure this, needs to maintain and protect the trails.

Rangers will be patrolling the trails to carry out maintenance and clearing work. People found riding on the trails while they are closed will be fined. 

The trails will be reopened when they assessed to be safe for riders and the necessary maintenance work has occurred.

For more information call the Parks Victoria Information Centre on 13 1963 or visit our website at http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au