Brisbane City Council has earmarked more than 40 parks and reserves around the city for new off-road cycling facilities.
The council's finalised off-road cycling strategy was submitted last month after much consultation with environmental and conservation groups concerned about proposals to allow mountain bikes into sensitive ecological areas.
But biking groups said they wanted to see dedicated tracks to support the sport's booming popularity and help reduce the number of illegal tracks in parklands.
At present, mountain bikers only have 31 kilometres of heavily used trails at Mount Coot-tha within the Brisbane City Council area.
Under the finalised plan, the council plans to introduce a variety of skills tracks, dirt jumps, pump tracks, single trails, cyclo-cross circuits and shared cycling on fire trails across the city.
"These off-road cycling opportunities will be progressed on an annual rolling program," the council's final strategy says.
Projects for the next five years include five new single-trail mountain bike tracks at Toohey Forest, Glider Forest, Karawatha Forest Park, Keperra Bushland, and Prout Road Park in the Brisbane Koala Bushlands.
Skills tracks, jumps or pump tracks are planned for Glindemann Park in Holland Park West, Mount Coot-tha Reserve and Gap Creek Picnic Area, Platypus Park at Mount Crosby, and Thrush Street Park in Inala.
The council said nearly 90 per cent of more than 3,200 respondents in an online survey supported more off-road tracks around Brisbane, and similarly agreed properly developed tracks could reduce illegal track building.
The finalised plan also lists more than 40 long-term projects to be considered after the next five years, including more single-use tracks at Kholo Bushland Reserve, Pine Mountain Quarry, and other parks in Kholo.
Cyclo-cross circuits are earmarked for Pallara Park, Ross Park in Nundah, and Bill Brown Sports Reserve in Fitzgibbon.
Bushland concerns
Brisbane Off-Road Riders Alliance released a statement in December welcoming the strategy, noting some of the parks listed had been used "informally" for years.
"While we don't condone unauthorised trail building, we hope that council recognises that building a good relationship with the local riders of the area is key to building effective community stewardship with strong sustainability outcomes," the alliance said.
Shortly before the strategy was released, Brisbane Bushland Alliance representative Christine Hosking addressed the council saying the group of environmentalists were concerned about the impacts of opening bushland reserves to mountain biking.
"Toohey Forest, for example, is a bushland reserve designated in the strategy for mountain bike single trails, but the soils in Toohey are very poor and unstable," Dr Hosking said.
"The forest is still recovering from being cleared decades ago. It has a large and growing koala population, and while koalas can tolerate humans more than some other species, it is not that simple."
Dr Hosking said Brisbane's bush reserves had been specifically set aside "as special places to relax and learn about nature".
Dr Hosking said the alliance wanted the council to develop a new bushland conservation strategy, inspired by the 2003 Mount Coot-tha Management Plan.
Environment, Parks and sustainability committee chair Tracy Davis said it was a "challenge" to "balance opportunities for recreation" while managing environmental impacts.
