Funds from Dorset council assets sold in Derby to be quarantined for mountain bike trails

The council approved the new policy position at its meeting on Monday and then agreed to sell two blocks of land in Derby at public auction.

Mayor Greg Howard said quarantining cash from asset sales was a safeguard to ensure ratepayers in other communities in the municipality were not subsidising something that did not benefit them.

“It’s about making sure the trails are self-sustaining, so even for maintenance costs we don’t want that to cost the community anything, because there was always going to be ongoing maintenance,” he said.

In the council agenda general manager Tim Watson said Blue Derby would undoubtedly become one of Tasmania’s tourism icons alongside the Three Capes Track and MONA with strategically-targeted investment in additional trails.

“Accommodation data reveals that the interstate visitor is staying on average 4.4 nights in and around Derby and in excess of seven nights in Tasmania, indicating the economic benefit is far broader than just the Dorset municipality,” he said.

“The economic impact of the increased visitation is not isolated to Derby and surrounding towns [like Branxholm and Weldborough], riders are also staying in Launceston and Scottsdale. Small businesses in Scottsdale in particular report increased turnover from mountain bike visitors.”

Mr Watson said an additional investment of about $1.5 million was required to fund the necessary expansion in the trail network including catering for novice riders and some additional intermediate-level trails.

“Blue Derby currently offers an 85km network of trails … research material about the world’s most successful mountain bike destinations consistently emphasises the need to expand the product offering to the novice rider once trail networks have been established,” he said.