Funding double means a new BMX track for Alstonville

Years of hard work has paid off for the Northern Rivers Dirty Wheels Mountain Bike Club with dual funding  worth $215,00 for a new track coming last week.

First up a $207,000 grant for the construction of eight kilometres of the Duck Creek Mountain Bike Park at Alstonville was made by the minister for racing Paul Toole and parliamentary secretary for northern NSW Ben Franklin MLC.

‘I’m delighted the NSW Government has partnered with Ballina Shire Council and the Northern Rivers Dirty Wheels Mountain Bike Club to deliver this great new sport and recreation facility,’ Franklin said.

‘Once completed, the park will be available to local riders who want to practise their skills and boost their fitness. It will also be a drawcard for mountain bike enthusiasts and competitors from farther afield, boosting tourism opportunities,’ he said.

Earlier in the week Greens MP Tamara Smith visited the Bike Park to celebrate that she had facilitated an $8,000 Community Building Partnership grant to help construct a one-kilometre section of track.

All up the grants will build nine kilometres of track that should be ready to ride in roughly six months, Northern Rivers Dirty Wheels Mountain Bike Club president Dave Hegerty said.

‘We should still have room for more track. Depending on how things go it could be as long as 15 kilometres when it’s finished,’ he said.

The funding was a nice reward for the club that has spent the last seven years, and at least $200,000, building the club and the track to its current state.

The club has 180 members and is still growing. ‘We would like to build up to 250 members so we can cover maintenance and other costs,’ he said.

‘The new bike track will be good for Alstonville. If you don’t play cricket, rugby or soccer there is not much for kids to do there,’ he said.