Albury-Wodonga mountain bikers push case for better facilities on Hunchback Hill

Indi Boer, the operator of Fastline Bikedemy and coach, fronted a Wodonga Council meeting on Monday to push the case for badly needed infrastructure on Hunchback Hill, including toilets and signage, which had been overlooked in the 2020-21 draft budget release last month.

She also described the city's hills strategy rollout over the last four years as a "debacle" and hoped council could become the sole managers for the hills by sidelining Parklands Albury-Wodonga and Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

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"The (mountain bike) community would like if Wodonga Council can over take the management from PAW and DELWP," Ms Boer said.

"It would make it easier as well for council to be thinking bigger from a tourism point of view.

"Mountain bikers are very passionate towards their sport.and are not going to go away.

"I honestly believe the upcoming council election maybe partially decided by whether mountain bike riding is supported or not."

Ms Boer said Wodonga risked being over-taken as a mountain bike riding destination with existing facilities at Mount Beauty and Falls Creek and a $2.5 million park proposed for Mitta

Mitta could emulate a similar small town in Tasmania called Derby which had embraced the sport.

"(Derby) was a completely dying out logging town and now it is one of the biggest tourist attractions down in Tassie because they built a mountain bike park," Ms Boer said.

Cr Danny Lowe said he was aware of the short-comings in facilities on Hunchback Hill.

"I've been up there on weekends and there has been parents having parties up there and they have to drive back into town just to go to the toilet," he said.

"That is not about participation numbers. That is about people enjoying the environment up there."

Albury-Wodonga Mountain Bikers claimed they had 200 active racing members and a further 1000 recreation riders.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data it was the fifth most popular sport in the country with more participants than tennis and golf combined.

Ms Boer said facilities for the sport locally were sub-standard compared to those for swimming, tennis and golf.

The Wodonga budget will be adopted on Monday night.