Julia ‘Indi’ Boer said those unable to use Hunchback due to an environmental audit were damaging a reserve on Federation.

“The kids are digging up the middle of Wattle Park to bring their jumps because they are not are able to do that at the moment anywhere else,” Boer said.

“Because we can’t touch the park, we can’t have anything at Hunchback Hill, we can’t have working bees in more than a year, so we can’t maintain the tracks.”

Boer coached Australian downhillers at this month’s world titles in Cairns.

She has also guided Border pair Ben Zwar and Matt Carter, who competed at that event.

“We need to have an outlet, mountain biking is a growing sport, it’s not going to go away just because you don’t like it,” Boer told Tuesday night’s forum on Wodonga Council’s draft hilltops plan.

“Teenagers are not going actually to start to walk because that is lame, but they are happy to do mountain bike riding and that is extremely nice….because they are going to be nature lovers as all of us mountain bikers are.”