Joel Kristensen: What the Hell is a Wollongong?

 You said it! So much potential just sitting there, and not only for riders but also the Wollongong tourism industry. Don't understand how they are yet to do anything!

 @CrankedMedia-Aus: Agree, I've been riding those trails since 1996 and the possibilities for world class trails is incredible. Our problem is Wollongong has created an old stiff & dying steel city image of itself - the laughing stock of Sydney yuppies and other regions of Australia. A far too large percent of its people can't see past this image "We are steel works and heavy industry we don't want to change". Our Current leaders are out of touch and only think about how to get more heavy industry back into the area or actually do nothing at all because we have been a stronghold for Labour for far too long. They have become complacent because they know they are safe and so do nothing for Wollongong. There needs to be a change in local government to make them realise that if they want to be in power they have to work for it. A Bike Park here could tap into the Sydney riders market with ease. Wollongong has the potential for a bike park to rival Whistler (which is more successful now than their winter season) in terms of volume of riders and popularity, except the bike park here could run 12months of the year. Either half of Wollongongs' older population need to die off to stop voting/working for the same thing or local government needs to swing back and fourth for a little while to shake things up for the area. The other issue is ownership of the land, With State Rec, Mining and Sydney Water owning the majority of land its difficult to get access. Mining in Wollongong is dead so they should sell the land off, Sate Rec is a given but would be very hard to negotiate with. Why Sydney water should own most of the land around Wollongong is beyond me, They claim that the land needs to be off limits to prevent contamination of Sydneys water supply, WTF! half the land doesn't even have water running towards the dams, not to mention the water is treated after it leaves them and you've got all those animals and fish pissing and shitting in and around the dam shorelines anyway. I 100% agree its bullshit nothing has been done in 20 years of lobbying for sanctioned trails.
End Rant.

 @ornorton: Absolutely, makes them seem totally blind to anything that may improve our infrastructure. My guess is there's also an element that people don't want Mount Keira, a relatively quiet and pristine place to all of a sudden be a buzzing and exciting place. However, how people don't realise how beneficial it would be to legalise trails for a region with one of the highest unemployment rates is beyond me.

All we can do now is combine as a community with the Illawarra MTB Alliance, and hope for the best. There is currently movement that I'm aware of, in partnership with Dirt Art, so it does seem slowly but surely we're getting closer to our goal!

 @CrankedMedia-Aus: Your right about some movement between MTB Alliance & Dirt Art. Even if they don't want the Park to be on Mt Keira, it could still be somewhere along the escarpment. towards the back of Mt Kembla dropping towards dapto or anywhere else between there and Macquarie Pass. I came across this link

www.visitwollongong.com.au/uploads/1541/mt-keira-adventure-playground-2016-update.pdf

If you scroll down to almost the bottom you can see a map of what and how the bike park would be laid out.

 Lucky no one mentioned the name eh?

 Cheers man! For sure, you won't regret it!

 Cheers man! Much appreciated

 Cheers man!