November 24, 2022
Goomeri and Kilkivan businesses could be missing out on thousands of dollars in extra sales each week because Gympie Regional Council is neglecting to maintain its portion of the Kilkivan to Kingaroy Rail Trail.
According to the South Burnett Mountain Bike Club (SBMTB), the eight kilometre unsealed section of the trail between the South Burnett Regional Council’s boundary and Goomeri has been unusable for the past six months, and the 28km section between Goomeri and Kilkivan has been closed for almost a year.
These closures have meant the club – and other groups – have had to drop both towns from its events circuit.
Last Sunday, the SBMTB attracted 43 cyclists and another half dozen guests for a guided ride from Wondai to Dusty Hill Vineyard in Moffatdale.
Riders assembled outside Wondai Art Gallery on Sunday morning, then followed a route along the South Burnett Rail Trail, and then the Moffatdale Winery Route mapped out earlier this year by the South Burnett Rail Trail Users Association and South Burnett Regional Council.
This route takes cyclists off the rail trail about six kilometres north of Murgon and leads them over another 14km of quiet country backroads to Moffatdale’s wineries.
In Moffatdale, some of the group detoured to Clovely Estate’s cellar door for wine and gin purchases, while others went straight to Dusty Hill for a long lunch before Out There Cycling bussed the riders and their bikes back to Wondai.
“All up, our little group spent more than $2000 on Sunday over and above transport costs,” SBMTB secretary Jason Wyeth said.
“We’d love to do similar rides to Goomeri so locals and visitors could try out Goomeri’s Bakery, Joe’s Grand Hotel, Wimberley & Co book store and the new confectionery store that’s just opened there,” he said.
“But until Gympie Council get a grader out to fix their stretch from the South Burnett to Goomeri, we just can’t include them in any group rides we schedule.
“Taking cyclists to Goomeri along the Burnett Highway is just too dangerous, and cycling the Wide Bay Highway to Kilkivan is out of the question.”
Jason said that based on his own group’s activities, and information gathered by the South Burnett Rail Trail Users Association, Gympie’s lack of trail maintenance was costing Goomeri and Kilkivan businesses between $100,000 and $200,000 a year in lost sales, and possibly more.
“A study carried out by the University of Queensland’s Business School last year found the average rail trail visitor in Queensland spends about $150 a day,” Jason said.
“You only need about 20 to 30 riders a week to generate $200,000 a year, but right now Goomeri and Kilkivan are getting pretty much no one.
“And while that’s not an enormous amount of money, this sort of spend means a lot to small businesses.”
Jason said the irony of the situation was that Gympie Council could have obtained funding to fix its portion of the trail from the Community and Recreational Assets Recovery and Resilience Program.
This program was designed to help councils repair community and sporting facilities after this year’s wet weather events.
South Burnett Regional Council received more than $630,000 to fix and upgrade its section of the trail, but there was no mention of Gympie Regional Council in the recent funding announcement.
“We know Gympie got hit hard by this year’s floods and they have lots of problems they need to get on top of,” Jason said.
“But some of this problem pre-dates the floods, so we’d love to see it fixed.”
Footnote: southburnett.com.au cannot confirm if Gympie Regional Council actually applied for funding for the rail trail under the Recovery and Resilience program.
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[Disclosure: Dafyd Martindale is president of the SBRTUA]
