Autorent Hertz Tasmania - Bike Rack Hire

One of the pains of travelling interstate or overseas with a bike is organising the car hire.  The number of times I've turned up at the airport to pick up a five door hatchback (which I've found is usually the most convenient way of transporting a bike with two or less people and two bikes), and found myself upgraded into a 'luxury car' which can't fit a bike ... grrr. Anyway, good news in Tassie is that Autorent Hertz Tasmania is now offering campervan with quality (thule) bike racks.

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Draft Cycle Tourism Strategy for Tasmania released for comment

The Tasmanian Government has released a Draft Cycle Tourism Strategy for comment.   The Strategy identifies three priority areas to support the growth and development of cycle tourism in the State out to 2020: consolidating trails and routes; marketing trails and events in Tasmania; and providing the supporting infrastructure and services to provide the right experience once cycle tourists arrive.

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2015-16 Tasmanian Mountain Biking Visitor Statistics

The number of visitors to Tasmania undertaking some form of mountain biking activity has climbed to 19,447 (range 18,400 - 20,500) according to the June 2016 release of Tourism Visitor Statistics, an increase of around 75% since the same time last year.

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Wellington Park's Middle Track and Pillinger Drive Tracks shared use trial outcomes

The Wellington Park Management Trust has considered the results of the shared use trial of upper Middle Track and Pillinger Drive Tracks and had resolved to permanently convert the upper section of Middle Track from Radfords Track to Reservoir Trail to shared use for cycling and walking and to extend the trial of shared use on Pillinger Drive Track to the end of 2016 while it discusses how best to address user concerns with the City of Hobart.

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Tasmanian Community Fund Grants Available

The Tasmanian Community Fund is seeking to fund a range of projects (up to $50 000) that build or improve community infrastructure and this includes improvements to existing bike tracks/parks, construction of new bike tracks/parks or the development of infrastructure to support community use of bike tracks/parks.

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Tasmanian Mountain Bike Trail Guide Book Released

Seasoned mountain bike journalist and guide book writer Travis Deane and Jane Deane have launched the “Tasmanian MTB Guide Book”.

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Mountain Biking in Tasmania – The Strava Insight

Strava data for the first quarter of 2016 seems to show that the Blue Derby trails and the North South track are the most popular riding trails (amongst strava users) in Tasmania followed by the Meehan Ranges and the trails in the Kate Reed NRA.  Tasmania's mountain bike trails are still a long way behind some of Victoria's and the ACT's key mountain bike parks.

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2015 Tasmanian Mountain Biking Visitors Statistics

The estimated number of visitors that undertook some form of mountain biking in Tasmania rose from 8,825 in 2014 to 13,196 in 2015 according to the latest release of data in the Tasmanian Visitor Survey.
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Tasmanian Cycle Tourism Strategy on its way ...

For those of you who don't pour through every Tasmanian Government announcement and news article, you may have missed the article by Jessica Howard in the Mercury on January 17 announcing that the Tasmanian Government is going to release a new MTB Strategy this year to capture Tasmania's growing reputation as a mountain biking hotspot.

This commitment seems to have morphed from writing a new MTB Strategy to developing a draft Tasmanian Cycle Tourism Strategy in the Premier's recently released Plan for a Brighter Future - Agenda 2016 which states that the draft plan will be released in the July to September quarter, 2016.
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Implementation of Greater Hobart Mountain Bike Plan - March 2016 Update

The release of the Greater Hobart Mountain Bike Plan (Land Manager) updates is one of my favourite mountain biking reads as I get to see what progress is being made on various projects in my own backyard.
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Volunteers needed to help on the Slides Track (Mt Wellington) Project Feb-March 2016

The City of Hobart is organising a number of volunteer working days in February-March 2016 to help build a new alignment for the Slides Track which links Knocklofty and South Hobart.
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Tasmanian Trail Association Newsletter - December 2015

The December 2015 Tasmanian Trail Newsletter is now available (see attachments).

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Hobart Mountain Bike Track Update (December 2015)

This is an update from Hobart City Council on Hobart's Mountain Bike Track works, including an opportunity for Trackcare to work with the #GreenArmy on the Slides project. This project will connect the two popular riding areas of Knocklofty Reserve and South Hobart.

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Tasmanian MTB Tourism Statistics Update - October 2014 - September 2015

The Tasmanian Visitor Survey data for the period October 2014 to September 2015 has been released and after several quarters of visitor numbers undertaking a bit of mountain biking going up, up and up ... this quarter they've taken a slight dip.

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Mt Wellington - Trial conversion of Pillinger Drive Track and the upper portion of Middle Track to shared use

The Wellington Park Management Trust has approved the trial conversion of Pillinger Drive Track and the upper section of Middle Track (Reservoir Trail to Radfords Track) from single use to shared use (bicycles and walkers) for 6 months. The aim is to trial a new, off-road bicycle route between Fern Tree and The Springs. 

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Dial Range Mountain Bike Project Needs a Boost

"We have the most incredible volunteers, diversity of terrain, rivers, and views. The Penguin Bike Park is a success beyond expectations, but now we have the unique opportunity to develop and improve close to 30km of trails in the Dial Range. Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania has approved the project and detailed trail marking is under way.
"We need close to $400K to bring this to reality (normally this will be $2.4 Million project)
"If you know of any grant, government or private support project (or have any spare cash). Send us the information. Thanks for your time, Cradle Coast Mountain Bike Club".

Source: Cradle Coast Mountain Bike Club Facebook Page Post, 23 November 2015

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Scottsdale to Tonganah North East RailTrail section opening - Sunday 29 November

Attached is a flyer from the Scottsdale Rotary Club inviting everyone to the opening of the new section of the North East Rail Trail from Scottsdale to Tonganah this Sunday 29 Nov. The old railway station in Ellenor Street will be the centre of the celebrations and will become the hub for the start of the Scottsdale based section of the Trail.
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Launceston Airport Bicycling Facilities

Echoing the burgeoning interest in cycle tourism in the region and the emergence of "world-class" mountain biking tracks at nearby Hollybank and Blue Derby, Launceston Airport has recently constructed its own “Bike-Port”.

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Maydena Bike Park gets the green light from the Tasmanian Government

The Maydena Bike Park is an ambitious project led by internationally-renowned trail company Dirt Art (www.dirtart.com.au) to re-purpose an abandoned $6.5m tourism development into a large-scale commercial mountain bike park and adventure centre. 
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October 2015 Events Update

OK, so this update is late, real late, but there's two good excuses for that: (1) I've been busy migrating all of the events over to a new platform on the webite (yawn) and (2) there's been so many new events to add this month that it took me awhile (yay!).
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