YOUR SAY: 'Sheer scale' of Albury Council mountain bike proposal alarming

As an avid user of Eastern Hill and adjoining resident I am alarmed and dismayed at the sheer scale and consequence to the hundreds of people using Eastern Hill each day, for a minority of mountain bikers who are already well serviced with Nail Can Hill.

At council's Monday night briefing, a consultant presented a detailed plan and openly acknowledged their brief was to prioritise mountain biking on Eastern Hill over other interests.

The plan proposes extensive development including a concrete 'land' bridge to 'minimise' walker/bike rider conflict, with various other intersecting points where they would cross over. The landscape and unimpeded views down to Mungabareena would be ruined.

No part of the Eastern Hill/Devils Glen area is missed with a car park proposed at Doctors Point reserve and new trails built in what is the only single wildlife corridor that connects Mungabareena to Doctors Point.

I fear for the survival of those land-based native animals that rely on this corridor, including local swamp wallabies and kangaroos, if their migration pathway is encroached in this way.

I urge all users of Eastern Hill to inform themselves of this proposal. If, like me, you value Eastern Hill as a haven for walkers please be heard and write to the mayor and councillors directly rather than Albury Council, who clearly want this development to go ahead.

The new aptly named Crossing Place Trail in Wodonga has several evocative public art pieces and informative picture boards which prompt thinking about how the crossing place was/is peopled in the past and now.

One picture board tells a story of Yarre, a canoeist, who transported mail cross river.

It is well-placed near the site of the ford that was used to cross to Bungambrawatha.

That ford seems to have been used for years and years by First Nations people who frequented the area.

In 1838 it was designated an official settler crossing place. A police hut was installed to guard it and a township eventually called Albury formed nearby.

We now await to see a picture board or public art piece on the other side of the river with a similar reminder of the significance of the ford and telling how the Murray River Crossing Place has been peopled.

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