Sustainable Trails
Conference 2022
North East Tasmania,
Australia
Program
For further information on all of our conference sessions and activities, please download our program here – subject to change.
Field Trips
Mountain biking field trip ONE
St Helens Trails Network
Difficulty: suitable for beginner to intermediate riders, but tracks available for advanced riders too
The St Helens MTB Flagstaff Trailhead has been purpose built to allow riders to gather and connect at the large recreational space where tables, chairs and outdoor bean bags are provided. You will also find a café (open weekends) and amenity block here.
The Flagstaff network has been designed to foster skill development and features around 66km of trails from beginner to advanced including; a series of stacked loops, a 27km adventure Trail – Dreaming Pools, as well as five descents, a climbing trail and the popular Townlink Trail.
The Townlink Trail connects the Trailhead with the township of St Helens by connecting to the scenic Georges Bay Multi-User Track. Both of these trails are dual purpose, dual direction and suitable for beginners.
Descents can be accessed via the Climbing Trail Garn Up or via a shuttle to Loila Tier. The rest of the trails all start and end at the Trailhead and the further you head out from the trailhead the more difficult the trails will become. You can find information on the trails here.
This field trip has been designed to provide progression for beginner riders, as well as a challenge for the more advanced.
Mountain biking field trip TWO
Visit Derby trail network – no riding here just discussion
Ansons Bay to Bay of Fires Trails – 20km of riding – may increase to include top 13km stretch if track is dry enough, this would make the total riding distance 40km
Difficulty: suitable for high intermediate to advanced riders – a good level of physical fitness is required as there are climbs involved on this ride and bikes provided are not e-bikes.
Walking field trip ONE
Wukalina Walk, Bay of Fires
Walking Distance: 10km +
The walk starts at larapuna (Eddystone Point lighthouse precinct) on traditional homelands, led on foot by palawa guides to learn about land and sea Country. Guides have lived experience and thousands of generations of Ancestral connection to the knowledge they share and to this place. wukalina Walk will deepen and expand your understanding of and appreciation for palawa culture and palawa strong community in lutruwita.
Walking field trip TWO
Freycinet National Park
Walking Distance: 8km +
Difficulty: Easy
The Freycinet walking field trip takes you to one of Tasmania’s most famous viewpoints over what has been voted as one of the best beaches in the world. Leaving St Helens at around 10am, the group will travel south down Tasmania’s spectacular East Coast to Freycinet Peninsula, where you will climb to the Wineglass Bay Lookout at the Saddle in the beautiful pink granite Hazards between Mt Amos and Mt Mayson. Guided by the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service (PWS) Capital Projects Manager, you will learn about how the track and lookout design has evolved, and the impact of the new loop track ‘second’ lookout which has dramatically changed the experience for visitors and helped manage flow of visitors and congestion. Discussion will also explore the construction challenges faced by PWS delivering this at a high profile/high visitation site. After lunch at the summit, the group will walk back to the carpark and along a new shared use track – the first Tas PWS has made in a national park – to Honeymoon Bay, and then from the Visitor Centre to Coles Bay township. Along this walk you will learn about the challenges and learnings worked through in design and building of the track, shared use and visitor management. Heading out of town, we will stop in at the glorious Friendly Beaches free camping area to consider a different type of visitor management, and stop into the famous Lobster Shack in Bicheno where you can purchase your (pre-ordered) dinner if you fancy whilst looking over the gulch and seal colony.
There is a short period (approx. 15 minutes) of steep walking to the Saddle, but otherwise the tracks are undulating.
With thanks to our sponsors
What did past attendees think?
The Sustainable Trails Conference provided an excellent opportunity to share best practice across a variety of topics from trail building to governance. Each session was valuable in its own right. Great to see the collaboration between our two countries as we all strive to make the most of this growing community.
The sustainable trails conference is a must do for all those involved in the planning, development and marketing of tracks and trails.
A well run and organised conference, excellent speakers who certainly provided a range of information in the topics presented. Took away some key learnings.
I have been to a lot of conferences before, this was one of the best I have ever attended.
A fantastic conference. Great speaker line-up with leaders in the field. Learned a lot and made new connections.
The Sustainable Trails Conference provides a unique opportunity to appreciate the importance of trails to local economies and tourism, the amount of work going on in this space, and to share and learn from others working in the field.