With accolades such as world’s most liveable city to the world’s coolest street, Melbourne has seemingly got it going on. But what about the mountain bike trails in Melbourne?
While it doesn’t have a significant network of trails (eg. over 100Km) yet, there are still plenty of options for locals and visitors to ride in and around Melbourne.
With options to access from the city fringe, through to trails hubs, North, East and West of the city, the mountain bike trails in Melbourne are growing and accessible to the city’s residents and visitors.
The Mountain Bike trail locations in or near Melbourne include:
- Yarra Trails
- Plenty Gorge
- Lysterfield
- You Yangs
- Woodend
- Red Hill
- Silvan
- Buxton
- Lake Mountain
Yarra Trails – MTB
The Yarra Trails is a collection of linked and often time, unsigned network of trails that have been built over many years.
These trails loosely follow the Yarra River, starting from around Richmond/Abbotsford area and heading all the way to Warrandyte.
With such a large stretch of informal trail, cutting through many suburbs, it is easy to break up and create you own out and back or loops on these trails.
There are some loops and sections that are well visited
Fairfield Boathouse/Pipe Bridge
The trails around here would be classed as intermediate, with rocky, technical sections, some cliff exposure and tight and twisty
Yarra Flats
As you head north, you come to a section known as Yarra Flats. In it prime, this was a fun, fast single-track loop, however it is often overgrown with fallen trees. Worth a look for the ‘deep in the forest’ vibe, given you are in the city.
Westerfolds Park
A large par in the Templestowe area, the singletrack keeps close to the river with unmarked trails throughout. A bit of exploration is needed to experience all the options. If you keep close to the river, you will eventually hit the bridge and canoe course at the entrance to Candelbark Park.
Candelbark Park
Candelbark Park is home to one of the original hand cut mountain bike trails in Melbourne, known as Han’s Loop. A fast loop that has been added to in recent years and now has a couple of different sections to create longer rides or different loop combinations to stretch out your ride.
Plenty Gorge
Plenty Gorge is large pocket of bush land north of the city that borders Mernda, Bundoora, Watsonia North and Plenty. While it has been largely informal trails over many years, it was until recently when more formal trails and signage was established with the local Plenty Gorge MTB club and Parks Victoria.
The trails center around the Plenty River and continue north beyond the known Gorge area.
With a number of different car parks to enable access to the park, the Plenty Gorge trails are an underrated area for Melbourne riders. The Plenty Gorge area is close to the city and a good option for quality trails, versus the You Yangs or Lysterfield.
Lysterfield MTB Trails
Another legacy location featuring hand cut trails is Lysterfield. This trail network has been formalised and invested into, to create a great resource for the South East side of Melbourne, about 40Km from the city.
Known as the home of the 2006 Commonwealth Games XC course, the Lysterfield lake trails welcome many riders. From solid intermediate trails to sharpen your skills, wide beginner loops around the lake, or the more advanced State MTB XC course.
This location is well visited and at times the trails have been in various states of disrepair, but the local Lysterfield MTB club have work hard with the rangers to keep on top of the maintenance.
There are plenty of car park options at the entrance of the park via Horswood Road, as well as other points where you can park and enter the trail network, such as Hallam North Rd.
The trails are largely twisty and technical, with bursts of fun, flowy sections and natural mini kickers, to keep it interesting.
You Yangs MTB Trails
The You Yangs have been hosting mountain bikers for many years and as the popularity of the sport increases, so too has the support from land managers to drive the growth. We can see this with the evolution of the trail network at the You Yangs.
Located West of Melbourne near the small town of Little River, it is roughly the same distance from central Melbourne as it is to Lysterfield.
The You Yangs mtb trails are split into two sections, the Kurrajong Plantation and the Stockyards.
The Kurrajong is mostly a flat, beginner friendly singletrack, making for a perfect introduction to Mountain Biking for new riders. For more advanced riders the Kurrajong trails can be linked with the Stockyard network for an extended loop. Ridden fast, the Kurrajong trails offer a challenging ride through the trees, with the length of trail via singletrack, being the main benefit.
The Stockyards trail network offers advanced riders challenging black and double black trails which have been used in multiple state mountain bike events for DH riders. Large drop offs, boulder fields, granite slabs with singletrack weaving through it, is what you can expect here.
In addition to the DH focused runs there are also intermediate trails, which funnel back to the car park. One of the more fun trail sections is the Junction Track, that links the Stockyards to the Kurrajong trails, an intermediate to advanced trail, it has the flow, twisty singletrack and exposure. The views up top and the tricky granite boulder garden, opens up into weaving through the trees, for the finish.
The You Yangs MTB trails are very popular, and the variety of trails enables varying levels of abilities to enjoy. Check out the local You Yangs MTB club for details on shuttles, events and trail days.
Woodend – Wombat MTB
Woodend is located about 55 minutes by car, north west of Melbourne. A small town that is a popular day trip visit, Woodend is surround by state parks and public lands, that have a couple of good trails built for Melbourne based riders looking for some variety.
Known as the Wombat MTB trail, Wombat Track, Wombat Forest or Wombat Loop if you search Wombat MTB Woodend, you will get to the right place.
As with many others, these trails started as had cut trails by enthusiastic riders many years ago. Over time, after local clubs formed relationships with the land managers, the trails got funding and were formalized. This genesis has created and enabled trailhead facilities and parking, clear signage on the trail and regular maintenance. A great outcome for riders, land managers and businesses that benefit from MTB visitors.
Set up as two loops, a shorter (6km) beginner friendly loop, with the choice to extend into a longer loop (11Km). The trails builders have done a great job, using the terrain and bringing together the unique features of the park. This includes a fun downhill section, twisting through bushland and skirting through rainforest like vegetation, all within the one trail.
With the uphill sections never too long, the Wombat MTB trail network is a perfect day trip for Melbourne based riders, to get some variety on well built rails and excellent after ride food & drink options in town.
Red Hill MTB
Red Hill was known for many years as a location for illegally built trails that catered to the DH set. Those in the know, knew where to go and were largely left alone. In recent times, over the last 15-20 years, these hand cut trails have been formalized, improved and added to, creating a solid trail network.
Located on the Mornington Peninsula about 1hr 10 minutes via car from central Melbourne, the Red Hill mtb trails offer excellent singletrack trails with amazing views.
It’s legacy from those early days is still on display with a number of advanced trail options compared to other Melbourne networks.
With a passionate local club (Red Hill Riders) driving the maintenance and trail development with Parks Victoria, Red Hill has quality trails worthy of various state and national mountain bike races and events.
The trail network is split into 2 distinct areas within the Arthur’s Seat State Park
- Arthur’s Seat Wombat Trail Network
- Arthur’s Seat McLaren Dam Trail Network
Each trail network have various parking options to access the trail and nearby cafes. There is access and cafes at both the Arthurs Seat Rd Carpark (Nordies) and Boundary Rd Carpark (Wombat Café). Alternativly head into Dromana for an after ride rest.
Silvan MTB Park
The Silvan MTB Park is located in the Dandenong Ranges National Park, approximately 1 hour east of central Melbourne. The trail network can be accessed via carparks at the Silvan Reservoir. For those in the know, it is the same park where the infamous 1000 steps walk/trail run is located.
The trail network is a collection of short singletrack sections with fire and management vehicle roads to access the trails. Whilst the network is not massive (15km of singletrack), it can be looped to make for a challenging ride. All within in some impressive rainforest bushland.
As with many other networks, the local mountain bike club (Yarra Ranges Mountain Bikers) work closely with Parks Victoria. This collaboration assists to carry out maintenance and trail build, organize social rides and assist with advocacy for riders.
Buxton MTB Park
Located near the town of Buxton, Victoria, the Buxton MTB Park is approx. 100 km North East of central Melbourne and would take about a 1hr 40 min by car.
The trails have been purposed built with smooth, flowy singletrack, berms and features to rail and pop. All nestled in an impressive mountain ash forested location.
With 23km of well-signed trail, the Buxton mtb trails are great for Intermediate riders. The largely blue trails on offer, and a more advanced black trail, cap off your ride of the loop.
Please note that Buxton MTB Park is closed during the winter months and opens around late September to June each year.
An excellent day trip or half day excursion, out of Melbourne.
Lake Mountain MTB – Cascades Trail
The Cascades Trail from Lake Mountain to Marysville is a 30Km flow trail from the Alpine Village of Lake Mountain all the way to the township of Marysville. While there are a couple of beginner trails at Lake Mountain, the flow trail is the jewel in the crown.
Billed as an intermediate flow trail with advanced features, the Cascades is classed as an epic trail. With a length of 30Km of purpose built trail, this has quickly become a key trail to ride, near Melbourne. Located 1hr and 40min north east of central Melbourne, Marysville is the shuttle pick up point to get you up to Lake Mountain resort.
Lake Mountain Resort offers shuttles from Marysville to the start of the cascades trail during the mountain bike season. The season goes from November through to April. On the weekends, the shuttles have 4 departure times of 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 and 12:30pm. At the time of writing the cost was $38 and takes about 30 min to get to the top.
Final Thoughts – Mountain Bike Trails Melbourne
With the growth of mountain biking participation in the last 10 years, riding options in and around Melbourne have increased. When formalized with funding & involvement from land managers you also get enthusiastic clubs to keep the passion alive.
Some of the original trail centres like the You Yangs and Lysterfield now have some worthy alternatives like Plenty Gorge. Further afield, trails like the Cascades MTB trail at Lake Mountain is also high on a list of must-do’s. . All these trails can be managed in a day trip and provide riders with various terrain types and trail features.
In the future, recent approval for a large network to be built in Warburton now has the go ahead. The network planned will bring an impressive number of mountain bike trails to Melbourne.
