Address

Club Executive

Focus of Townsville Rockwheelers MTB Club

Townsville Rockwheelers focus is directed towards establishing mountain biking as a positive recreational and sporting activity for the wider Townsville community and continues to lobby for secure tenure on land that is close to the community for building environmentally sustainable multi use trails.

A History of MTB in Townsville

Townsville Rockwheelers MTB Club Inc. was established in 1991 by a small group of local bike riders who took up this new and evolving sport of mountain biking. The club leased private land at Mt Louisa from 1995 -2001 but this lease was cancelled due to the Public Liability crisis which hit Australia and remains an issue to this day. Trails were also developed around the hills at Mt Stuart and at Douglas. Many of the Douglas trails were destroyed and lost to club member’s use with the sale of the land by Townsville City Council for residential property development.

Mt Stuart Down Hill

Rockwheelers successfully negotiated the development of a Down Hill MTB venue on Mt Stuart where the club now holds 6 – 8 race events a year and is open to any riders to use at any time. This venue has proven very popular with the younger Down Hill mountain biking community with up to 65 riders in each race and with many riders coming from Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton to take part. The local Down Hill riders continue to maintain this track.

Cross-country (XC) Race Series

The Townsville cross-country (XC) race series came to a halt some years ago due to the loss of a venue for running these events. As a consequence, membership numbers dropped dramatically. The club began negotiations in 2003 with Local Council and State Government bodies to gain permits to access the existing trails on Mt Stuart and at Douglas for multi-use non-motorised sports activities including walking, jogging, hiking and mountain biking. These negotiations are continuing positively but slowly. Official permissions to access these trails are a requirement of our affiliation with Mountain Biking Australia (our governing body) before we can advertise or hold social rides or races that are a club organised activity. This is for Public Liability and insurance purposes.

The Paluma Push

To fill the void created by having no venue to hold any club XC rides (racing and social), Rockwheelers held its first “Paluma Push” point to point XC race in 2002, riding from Paluma Village via Paluma Dam and down to Hidden Valley. In its first year there were 65 riders, all who were in competition class and no women entrants. Seven years later in 2008 the event totalled 415 riders, with the majority in recreational class and good contingent of women riders. Rider numbers have been capped at 500 as the course is now at capacity. The Paluma Push injects many thousands of dollars into the local Paluma/Hidden Valley community in the form of donations to the Rural Fire Brigade and SES (nearly $30,000), with these funds used to purchase 2 new fire trucks in 2008.

Access to Lake Ross Storage Area

Rockwheelers successfully negotiated a 10 year permit with NQ Water (now Townsville City Council) for access by club members to hold club sanctioned activities at Lake Ross (Ross Dam). This access permit runs from 2007 to 2017 and the club is injecting its own funds and many hours of volunteer labour into building and maintaining the environmentally sustainable mountain biking trails in this area. Lake Ross now provides the first “official” XC mountain biking trails within easy access to the Townsville community with regular club rides being held here.

The HOTRock8

Townsville Rockwheelers held its inaugural 8-hour XC endurance event – the HOTRock8 - as part of the Suncorp NQ Games in May 2008 on the newly built trails at Lake Ross. The inaugural race was a huge success with over 200 riders in solo and team categories taking part. Support from local businesses and riders was overwhelming and the single track sections are currently being extended by our trail care volunteers for 2009. This is great event for corporate teams or groups of friends and family to have a fun day out.

MTB Skills Clinics

In conjunction with AMBC Skills Clinics, Rockwheelers held is first series of MTB skills clinics in Townsville in May 2008. The clinics provided an opportunity for 40 new and not so new riders to develop and practice their mountain biking abilities with a whole day dedicated to our lady riders only. The clinics proved to be a great hit and plans are to run these each year before the HOTRock8.