- In short: Victoria's Conservation Regulator says dirt bike riders are causing damage to native wildlife in the state's south-west
- What's next? Riders want new tracks just for bikes instead of tracks they have to share with four-wheel drives
Nestled among Victoria's Otway Ranges, a labyrinth of thin pathways shows where dirt bike riders have carved their own tracks through the bush.
They may look like innocent grooves in the ground, but the Conservation Regulator says they're creating an environmental disaster for some of the state's most delicate vegetation and Aboriginal heritage.
More than 600 kilometres of illegal bike trails were mapped by the regulator over the past decade, from dirt bikes and mountain bikes, in the Great Otway National Park and Otway Forest Park.
The trails are created when riders veer off designated paths, often using animal trails, and cut their own way through native bushland.
In Victoria, dirt bike riders are permitted to drive on open fire trails, formed roads and seasonal tracks that are open for six months of the year, but never on single trails on public land.
There are around 1,000 kilometres of roads and tracks available for legal off-road use in the Otway district for most of the year. Between June and November when it's wetter, there are road closures.
The regulator said illegal tracks are causing irreparable environmental damage and jeopardising native species habitat and Aboriginal cultural heritage.
"It's been going on for a long time," senior forest and wildlife officer Scott Nicholson said.
"We have national parks and forests where native wildlife thrives. We've got wildlife that are actively in a breeding process and they've got fragile habitats."
Because of the amount of rainfall in the Otways, Mr Nicholson said illegal trails could lead to erosion and the spread of diseases like cinnamon fungus that destroy the roots of plant systems.
Riders cutting through wire fences, regulator says
Victoria's Conservation Regulator and Parks Victoria regularly patrol the area, and have installed CCTV cameras.
The fine for riding on illegal tracks is $192, and up to $962 for driving on closed roads. If the case is taken to court, riders and drivers can face up to $9,615.
Between January 2022 and June 2023, officers issued more than 70 infringement notices to trail bike riders going off-road in forests, parks and reserves.
Mr Nicholson said most of the riders his team caught knew they were doing the wrong thing and often carried chainsaws to cut through thick wire fences to get onto illegal tracks in revegetation areas.
"Some are certainly aware. They're returning customers and so sadly, that message doesn't sink in," he said.
"Other people are making an honest mistake. They might be a new trail bike rider, they haven't got the information that they needed.
"But most of the recreational trail bike riders we're dealing with out in this landscape specifically, are pretty aware of what the regulations are."
Mr Nicholson said new mountain and dirt bike riders had to learn where and when not to ride to ensure the existing illegal tracks were not made worse.
"The onus is on them to find out what they can and can't do," he said.
Even at legal cross-country mountain bike races, Mr Nicholson said organisers sometimes operate outside their permits and construct trails that are not allowed.
He said riders look for more thrilling trails with jumps and fast, downhill slopes.
"They're looking for an experience that we can't provide with the tracks that we've got," Mr Nicholson said.
"So if they're chasing that extreme enduro (the term for cross-country motorcycle sport) opportunity, they need to chase that on private land."
Otways are home to threatened plants and animals
The heathlands near Anglesea are home to several threatened plant species including the Anglesea leek orchid, the angahook caladenia and the Anglesea large bearded greenhood.
Endangered marsupials like the southern brown bandicoot also live there.
Sally White is the president of Angair (Anglesea Aireys Inlet Society for the Protection of Flora and Fauna), a group who dedicate their spare time to pulling out weeds from the illegal trails and educating riders about the damage.
"This is a very fragile environment and bikes can do a tremendous amount of damage," she said.
Ms White said mountain and dirt bike riders, and even hikers, need to be more aware of how easily disease can spread to native plants in wet environments, such as the austral grass tree - an iconic Surf Coast species.
"Some of them around here are 100, 150, some of them even 200 years old," Ms White said.
"We really have to make certain that people are aware that wherever they ride, they can be taking death with them."
Riders having 'head-on collisions' with cars on legal tracks
Rodney Brown has ridden bikes for eight years and is the president of dirt bike group Otway Enduro Club.
Riders currently have to use four-wheel drive tracks, so there's a need for single, legal trails on public land, he said.
"It's safer because you're riding a lot slower than on a four-wheel drive track," Mr Brown said.
Some riders were wary of tracks they could legally ride on because they had to share them with cars, he said.
"They go up and down over hills and I know three to four people who have had head-on collisions," Mr Brown said.
Dirt bike riders want to practise techniques on narrow, technical tracks and although private land is available for club events, members of the public cannot ride there.
"There's a pretty big section of the community who want to ride single trail," Mr Brown said.
"There are ride parks like the one near Melton but they don't have single track, they have motocross track and it's very open."
He believes the environmental damage done by single trails is overblown because he's seen vegetation regrow a year after a race.
"It's hard to find that track — it grows back," he said.