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Kings School Mtn bike park
Here are the clues i have seen.
As most are aware. DIRT ART have begun construction on the Knapsack reserve Downhill trail. While hiring for trail builders they where looking for locals to the Blue Mountains and Parramatta.
A week or 2 ago Dirt art FB page mentioned a Mountain bike park contract for a Sydney Private school. I had questioned them on this and they said it would be announced later.
In a recent Dirt art fb post the mentioned Kings School Mtn bike park.
A quick google found Kings schhol in Parramatta is adjacent to Parramatta lake reserve and looks as though they may own a larger portion of land at the back. I have not been able to find more information on this. Does anyone else know more?
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I had asked Dirt art if there is any public information and they just responded that it will be a private facility.
Last time he was in Sydney Cadel Evans did some publicity at the school announcing a new mtb track there. I doubt very much it will be open to the public.
It did make news but I can't find anything on it now.
I think you will find Kings and Tara own the land almost all the way to the creek, and maybe even across the other side a bit too, that includes lots of the land with trails currently on it. Kings is a pretty serious school. Even if they had a track, I doubt they would let the public ride on it. For example, I don't think I can just rock up to Barker/Knox (around the corner here) and use the pool or the oval, or the tennis courts, or even a bunsen burner, or the photocopier. However it is noted that Knox and Barker ride at OMV, which tells me that your chances of Parramatta City Council building a dirt jumps park or XC trail could be lower. Otherwise why would Kings think "Stuff it, it's easy, it's not expensive, it's great for children, it's good exercise, we just do it ourselves".
From a town planning perspective I think it's better that schools are built around a cluster of public sports ovals rather than each having their own. However, we cannot wipe out Sydney and start again, but it would be nice, even while some people stay for the wiping.
you yourself have ridden the lake & have a rough idea how much area there is too ride ? They have a fair bit of land them Kings schoool ppl .
The rifle range they have there?-NobMob will be bombarded with people asking for the range to be closed!!! LOL
Hi.have not posted a comment for long time but this forum is timely with some thinking I have been doing. I have been riding the Parramatta Trails for 7 yrs (since I live alongside the Toongabbie Track), I worked in local government (including Parramatta Council) on open space management for 18 yrs and have come to the decision that it is time to get organised and initiate discussion with Parramatta Council and adjacent land managers to develop an agreement on how best to manage the the 'lands' that we enjoy.
I have made 2 phone calls (1 to a councillor and 1 to the Parks Manager) to get a feel for their opinions on the matter and I can tell you that Parramatta Council are not really considering proactively how to manage MTB in their neighbourhood...I think they just hope it goes away or the problems do not get any worse. The problems in my mind are that infrastructure is not designed to cope with the pressure of mtb, track maintenance is based on walking usage and with the increase of STRAVA 'time trials' the risks for all are increasing.
As I primarily a solo rider I am not connected into any club or riding group so not sure how to get a working group together to discuss....but I am very keen to get something going before Council and mtb'ers become more agitated and someone (rider or walker) gets badly hurt.
Suggestions ?.....I could arrange a meeting place at lake parra (if the training room up there is still available to the public) for anyone who is interested in considering the options....or the coffee shop is always good ?
Tony I think you have missed the boat parra lake has had a lot of trails made no bikes walking only by parra council there was a group setup but it was all to late.Yes I know there is still a lot rideing going on there until the signs go up.
MTB banned from Parra Lake & MTB trails built next door at Kings school on adjacent land?....$$$$ do talk.....
Drop a PM to Simon on thsi board. He is el presidente of Trail Care, who is working with stakeholders in nothenr Sydney to get AM trails in Red Hill and Oxy up and formalised.
His time is limited, but he will be able to give you valuable pointers and coaching on how to get this stuff started.
I would also recommend *buying* the two books available from IMBA: http://www.imba.com/resources
Where is this rifle range you speak of ? I been riding there for 5yrs never come across it yet ?
Also talk to Chris (Sellwood) as he too was involved with Parramatta.
http://bmorc.com/node/30991
Thx for all the great advice guys.
The challenge for lake parra is that the Carlingford Run involves 3 land owners/managers with parra council only responsible for roughly 15% maximum. The other are Kings maybe 10% and Hills shire council has the rest. it will be very difficult for kings to build any XC course without some collaboration.
The other challenge that council, and even Kings with all the money in the world,won't tell you is that it is near impossible to enforce the 'no riding policy' so it just gets more dangerous for everyone.
I was just riding around that area today and its getting like 'Pitt St' but on bikes!.
I will contact the suggested blokes and see what their advice is.
Most people don't understand us mtb riders let alone the
Council, so the lest said about it the better just ride and be happy.
Happy trails.
Agree with Joe. We tried for more MTB access when the Lake Parra POM came out and council didn't want anything to do with it. I think we are lucky to even still have access to Illawong Dr. Let's not stir up a hornets nest.
Due to recent forum topics here on NobMob I thought I would try to have some fun with it when discussing the MTB trail at the Kings School as they have a small bore(.22cal) rifle range on their site!-sorry me just being a sarcastic bastard!!!!
we don't need sarcastic bastards ruining our only local tracks we have enough trouble already
Rode the lakes on Monday, no changes. Rode again yesterday & just about had a heart attack. Have done alot of work in last two days. Looks like a fun little loop, it's a shame we weren't invited to help with the build with a veiw to later use of this loop. Does anybody know if we are getting locked out once complete? This will mean walkers will be excluded also & it's a great place for running, shame.
With out a fence im sure they would have minimal control over sneakies.
I was hoping they would have a public access and post when it was closed for training/racing &/or private sessions.
Where abouts is this work taking place? Somewhere near the pipeline?
They have cut in the trail between the two fire trails that follow the Lakes fence down the hill, at the bottom it takes a 90 degree right & heads off back towards the Kings School buildings.
Rode it today and it looks very good but they have cleared out a fair bit of technical bits on the original tracks.
The new stuff is very professional but still a construction site at the moment, so any riding on it will be viewed as trespassing.
I think that we will be excluded from it when it does open but an approach to the school to offer help maintain it might be best.
I've emailed a mate who worked/works there a a teacher to see who would be best talk to.
Chris
have the boys been up there to check it out ? The usual ones we ride with ? talk soon .. Russ
We rode it all today - but its still under construction.
It's an XC training track for the students from the look of it.
Looks nice but theres a good chance that it will be off-limits to everyone.
Its a bit like their swimming pool - they don't let the riff-raff get in their pool do they?
Can you tell me where abouts it is? all ive heard is that it is somewhere up behind the rugby fields, i go to kings and im super eager to go test it out and im going up there in a few days to find it.
It might just help a little if i know where it is exactly ahaha.
Cheers
Chris
Uncertain if its officially open yet, you should check with your school.
also all i know about the track is that there is gunna be a "world class mountain bike facility" behind the doyles.
Thats all our deputy headmaster has said about the project so far.
if anyone knows anything about the location and stuff please tell!!!
yeah i know it isnt officially open but they said its finished so im gunna head down there to scope it out
I just got back from a ride at the back of Kings School. While there I was talking to a Kings School teacher who was out riding with a group of students. He explained that the school owns pretty much all the land from the boundary of Lake Parramatta to Tallwood Drive towards North Rocks Rd and across to Statham Ave / Bettington Rd. In the next couple of weeks they plan on closing holes in fences, locking the gates and posting signage indicating that it is private property. He said that the intention is to try and sort out liability issues in the hope of being able to open the gates again for the public to use the area. I didn't realize just how much of the land the school owned. It is going to have a big impact on local MTB and walkers. At the end of the conversation I had the feeling that the gates may not be opened again. I can't see the school spending money on trails then opening them up for the general public to use. I think the area may become just as restricted as the rest of the school. I hope not but let's see what happens.
Like you Steve, I was riding through here yesterday and ran in to the same teacher. He was very polite about the situation with me since I should not have been there and we chatted about some other matters too while I retrieved kids from part of their track that's been built. And yes I received very much the same message. You can see how much land they own in the reserve part by looking at Google maps in map view. Their area I believe is blocked out in a different green colour cutting the Lake Parra reserve and Hunts Creek severely in two and with their land perimeter going right up to gardens to the north.
He stated to me the issue of public liability hence the need to close the gates even though they've been at "risk" for years since they've been open for as long as we have lived here. Must say they are going to get a lot of people offside if and when they do go ahead and lock themselves in. I live in North Rocks and it is used as a nice walking route by many as well as bikers. I watch them go past my back garden every weekend. Like you, I expect it to be closed as they probably don't want anyone in it now they've built three track routes rather than being a public liability issue. I would have thought they would have it as they do open to the public for different things including open days. In fact they had one this weekend for which anyone could attend. I would assume that to hold any event with members of public in attendance they would need something. But I'm no legal eagle.
Sad that I only just ventured through the area to Nth Parramatta having watched a clip on You Tube to find the way across. Looks like a nice little local ride may soon be history.
Will need to investigate and find other interesting tracks like this one as I have the bug once more having dusted off my bike only this year after a long hiatus.
Given that mtb is a risk activity, so long as the trail is built and marked with signs to acknowledged standards such as IMBAs it is most unlikely a liability suit would succeed. This is the.view NPWS have come to as the legal reality and therefore dismissed the arguments of the anti mtb lobby. More than likely it would cover Kings too.
Waivers aren't worth the paper they're printed on so how else do they expect to be insulated from well heeled parents parents out for their pound of flesh when something goes wrong?
If the desire to engage with the community is genuine this proposition could be put to their legal advisors. Perhaps someone could forward the relevant sections of the NPWS responses to the consultative process public feedback to them?
Other private landholders are dealing with the issue so I'm sure they can too if they wanted.
what part of the trail did you see the teacher up near the school ? Or were you down near the fenceline ?
Hi. I came across the teacher just up from the causeway. Where the trail that follows the fence line with Lake Parramatta reaches the bottom of the hill.
why was a teacher that far down the trail the boys were training on the tracks ?
Hi. I think they ride a xc loop. From the school across the causeway then go right and head to the clearing under the power lines. From there follow the single back down to the creek and then the trail along the pipe line.
I was at the school on Sunday for a car show and saw that they have built a course near the oval which then flows on to some new trail (marked with some white posts) that goes to the bottom of the hill. There is also another small section of new trail (marked with similar white posts) right over near Seville reserve. To me it looks like they are planning to use a large amount of the land for their MTB activities. Not just the course near the oval.
Would be sweet if WSMTB could get a round here once a year like they do with Blue Gum Lodge.
It's great to see more MTB in schools. I know that Kings have been in touch with the other schools doing Saturday AM MTB as a sport. WSMTB will be assisting with a few rounds of this competition again in late 2013 and early 2014. I am in contact with Kings about competing in the 2014 JetBlack NSW All Schools XC Championship - a 4 hour teams race in June.
Ray Rice
XC VP WSMTB
[email protected]
Sounds like great news for tge sport. Although I havnt been to school in 14years, Is a round for us older kids on the cards?
I applied to get MTB as a sport or co-curricular at my school, but got knocked on the head this year, but may apply again next year. We dont have the land that Kings does, but in m application I included riding various trails all around Sydney, getting coaching from professional MTB intstructors and do all safety and maintenance workshops. I know St Ignatius has a MTB club, saw about 20 students with their teacher pushing a decent pace a while ago along the Perimeter. With big schools, especially older schools, the traditional sports are well entrenched and hard for newer sports to get in. Thats why its so good for Kings to get things going, hopefully more schools, mine included, will eventually have it as a school sport. I'd be thankful if anyone has ideas for my next application. I know a few teachers at Kings, so may ask them for advice and I may have to sample their track as well
I think with big boarding schools like Kings and St Ignatius, transport is easier plus for Kings, why not use your backyard for the boarders for more recreation.
Hi Ken - see the Schools page on the WSMTB web site (www.wsmtb.com ). Having a NSW championship race available (over 200 riders), may help your argument. There is also the National Interschools held each year in March in Thredbo.
Covenant Christian where my young bloke goes has mtb as a sport option including a fleet of bikes and a trailer. Being next to Cascades helps too. If the boys get unruly they have to do Quarry climb repeats
thanks Ray, will have a look. I know Lisa from Sydney Bike Skills trains the PLC girls team with very good success.
Hawkeye, yes, that is very handy having a trail next to the school, maybe they can also help maintain the trails during detentions.