News Service from House Harris

Qld: Off-road motorbikes driven out

BRISBANE, Jan 7 AAP - More than 250 motorbike riders have converged on the Gold Coast to rev up their campaign for a legal home.

The Gold Coast Motocross Club will become homeless like many other clubs when its decades-old hinterland location at Reedy Creek closes at the end of April.

The club is lobbying hard for a new venue.

The demonstration outside the Gold Coast Council headquarters on Wednesday morning was in support of council's attempts to provide a new site for local dirt bike riders, said club vice-president Chris Rowe.

"The sport's growing, it's getting bigger, and the Gold Coast must have a venue," he said.

It is not just a problem for the Gold Coast, with the state opposition yesterday announcing a trail bike policy.

The state government is expected to release its own policy on Wednesday.

Local governments and police are struggling with the issue because without legal venues the riders take to the streets.

Street riders generate complaints about noise and safety, while police patrols are reluctant to pursue young riders for fear of accidents.

The recent closure of Black Duck Valley, an off-road venue near Gatton, between Brisbane and Toowoomba, when its insurers refused further cover, had added to the problem in south-east Queensland.

"All that's going to happen is they'll turn up at illegal venues, riding bush tracks, state forests, they'll all ride somewhere," Mr Rowe said.

He said the club had 800 to 1000 riders, aged from 4 to 60, and an excellent safety record.

Local councillor Daphne McDonald agreed that without legal riding venues the bikers would take to the suburbs.

She said the club had failed to gain the town planning approval it needed and a court ruled it must close.

"Once it's closed down, where do all these people go?" she asked.

"The nearest place they go is to residential streets and parks."

She said the encroachment of suburbia on such venues would remain a problem, especially with an extra one million people expected to move into south-east Queensland over the next 20 years.

The state government should consider laws forbidding complaints against long-established venues which have been subsequently crowded by housing development, Ms McDonald said.

"If you buy near these, well don't complain," she said.

The council hopes to have an alternate site for off-road bike riding within six months.