Anybody out there know the best places to ride in Australia. Heading out there for a extended visit and the Missus is gettin shirty as she wants to live out there. Currently live in the Lakes and got all the riding I need on my door step and don't want to lose that accessibility to quality trails. Where are the centres of Austarlian MTB (cross country/downhill etc).
Your help will be much apprciated on this one!!!

Where are you headed?

Canberra is the best place to live for MTB'ing, and I'd have thought along with Brisbane the nicest place to live. Australian cities go on FOREVER, regardless of population size, and in Canberra you can ride to the trails from the city and you don't feel as trapped or claustrophobic as in Sydney. There's DH and good trails nearby.

In Sydney there's a city centre trail at Manly, think it's the Manly Dam trail that's pretty cool. Easy to get to from wherever, but especially the north side of the harbour. It's a 12 mile or so loop.

Sydney also has access to the Blue Mountains which have some brilliant trails but getting there is a real pain. It's an hour and a half from central station by train to get to decent trails- too far IMO. Sydney does have a thriving race scene, though, with some inner city dirt crits in one of the parks.

Melbourne has some OK stuff, but it's a bit flat and I wasn't so impressed to be honest.

Hope that helps. Good luck living in Oz- I couldn't hack it and came home, I much prefer it here.

Thanks for the info.
The missus's sister lives in Brisbane so I would imagine we would head there. Like the sound of Canberra!
I've agreed to go for an extended trip in summer 2011 but I don't fancy moving there!
Thanks again for the info.

There is lift assisted DH in the Snowy Mountains, which are perhaps a few hours drive from Canberra. Brisbane has hills inland so must have some trails. Blue Mountains are good.

Be aware that there is not the same public rights of way network as you get here (and far too many people take for granted). Much land is privately owned. Your best bet is to find an aussie mtb site and get some locals to show you around. All of the best stuff I would expect to be hidden.

No point in going to Oz if you are going to live in a city.

Avoid the Mexican, Cockroach, and Mass Murderer states. NT is loony, WA is too far, SA is full of Poms. 🙂

Coastal Queensland is the place. Gets a bit bitter in winter, drops to about 13 degrees on the really cold days.

Lots of places with mountains. Check out the Bicentennial Trail if you like a decent ride (a few thou kms)

Poor me, I'm heading there on Monday. 🙂

Beware of Canberra – yes they are about to host the world cup, but then they are likely to lose a lot of the trails just after as the forestry commission is about to log it and the Govt put in a new motorway for the military up that way! What is there is good though, lots of big, flashy 24hrs etc raced that way and CORC is a very active club. However, not much there unless you are in politics, work wise, apparently. Living is expensive due to the $$$ Govt jobs there too.

For Brisbane – Mt Cootha and The Gap(? localism, can't remember exact name) to the west of the city, but up and down the coast there are lots to ride apparently. Also, after you've been here for a while the thought of driving more than 2 hours becomes less of a problem – cos everything is that far away! Bris-vegas sprawls heaps and then almost meets up with the Gold Coast now – like Blackpool with rides and family holidays, but warmer and more expensive!

I live in Adelaide; good trails straight out of the city in the hils to the south and east, more to come and we have the Nationals for the next 3 years (immediately before the tour down under – bike fest fortnight), so the govt are a bit more lenient and willing to listen at present. Some good stuff within a few hours driving too Adelaide/SA trails, Adelaide XC club, Adelaide DH club

Just off the Great Ocean Road in the Otway Ranges is Forrest – ride forrest – in Vic; not too far to also hit the You-Yangs for more good biking just outside of Geelong. However, moving there would be a little hard as it's a tiny town (few hundred maybe?!) Probably somewhere to head for a weekend etc if you were in Melbourne region

Melbourne and Sydney have good scenes, but everything is busier simply due to number of people – Lysterfield nr Melb, search for Manly Dam as an example of Sydney.

Tasmania is also real nice – just effin cold (the next thing south is Antartica, so hardly surprising) gets a fair bit of rain too. However, the Aussie MTB squad are based there (partly money, obviously, but there are lots of good trails too). search for "wildside MTB" – Tassie's biggest race but shows what is out there if you go for an explore.

As mentioned above, the ski resorts in NSW and VIC also offer lift served come our summer – search Mt Buller & Thredbo – these two are the ski areas pushing the bikes in summer theme the most.

Also look for Mt Beauty, Mt Buffalo, Munda Biddi trail (WA) and my favourite, Melrose (www.otesports.com.au) – sistered to Fruita, Singletrack is hella fun, just watch out for the Roo's in the middle of the line at times!

Bear in mind this is all MTB perspective – living here really means a bigger town or city IMO, but once you get used to it, it is a far more relaxed lifestyle than the UK, something I didn't really notice so much until I went back for the first time in 3.5 years last month.

And I'd say Adelaide/SA has the most potential – cheapest living of the major capitals, quiet beaches (with less of a shark problem than the East or West coasts!) and better surf, Med type climate and seasons, cheap flights to the 'Big Cities' of Melbourne and Sydeny if you need that type of fix (1-2hours away). But I'm biased! 😉

Tassie: that is all you need.

Thanks for all the info!
Lots too think about!!

I'm living in Brisbane now after leaving the UK a few years ago. There is a lot of good riding around here. Daisy Hill between Brisbane and the Gold Coast is very good, my local ride.

Just to let you know, the riding at the You Yangs is about 25mins by car from Yarraville (where I used to live)/Footscray on the west side of the city. Geelong is a large town of maybe 20,000, I think the above poster is thinking of Little River, a "hamlet" of a few hundred just a mile or two from the Stockyards area where the trails are. I wouldn't want to live in Geelong either way.

There's a fair bit of riding in the Dandenongs to the east of the city, but very little of it is officially allowed, bar Lysterfield.

Forrest looks ok too from what I've seen online.

Nah, perhaps its not clear, but if you were to live Colac, Apollo Bay or somewhere down that way, it's not unreasonable to drive to the you-yangs, for another good riding option

Aye, fair 'nuff. The Youies are pretty good though. Lots of new stuff since I was there (3 years now). Pretty good all year round then, and great for a very early morning ride before work during the summer 😀

.. speaking from my present situation: Tassie's pretty ok for riding (ish). Some really good trails hidden away there, but like above says – there's no public rights of way network here, so it's best to hook up with some local riders who can show you the way round.

… That said, I've discovered some great routes here – a 100 yr old disusued tramway singletrack route through the rainforest at the weekend was a particular highlight. 🙂

… Then again, I have to mix MTBing with 50% darkside now (otherwise I'd simply be riding the same routes every week, which would quickly get boring!)

… Climate in Tassie's not as bad as UK. It does rain here in winter, but we got 42C in the summer and way more sun than the UK generally. Very chilled out, loads of space, no urban sprawl – there's definitely some good things here!

Coming from the lakes, you'll blub like a school girl.

I'm assuming "bigrich" you mean I got it too good in the Lakes and I'd be weeping from missing the riding???? Or is it a dig at weakness????
If the latter is the case thats another argument to throw back at the missus for why not to move!

Were heading to Brisbane to live in 5 weeks time on a permanent visa due to my work. I have started to have a look at some of the MTB clubs around Brisbane there seems to be a fair few. In Bristol I tend to ride half mtb and half road anyway. Brisbane also has an active velodrome. The last time I was out there I was a non mountain biker! If anybody out that way wants to ride give me a shout especially if you know the trails!