Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Adjournment

Main Yarra Trail

Mr GUY (Bulleen) (19:01): (1974) My adjournment issue tonight is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and concerns the state of the Main Yarra bike trail from Fitzsimons Lane to The Parkway in Templestowe. The Main Yarra Trail, as its name suggests, is the main bike and walking trail for the Yarra River. It is hugely popular every day of the year and nowadays acts as a commuter feeder for bikes and cyclists from the north-eastern suburbs, connecting with the Koonung Creek Trail and on to the Capital City Trail into the CBD. I do not need to restate that its patronage is high, that it is acting as a cyclist highway and that it is only growing in popularity. However, once you reach the Yarra River bridge at Fitzsimons Lane the trail ceases to be a usable entity for much other than mountain bikes or cross mountain bikes. The sealed surface disappears, it becomes muddy on wet days, the trail dips to low points which are frequently too dusty for runners and cyclists to mix in warmer months and, as I said, it is too wet in winter. It is time now to seal this section of the track.

Management of the land falls under Parks Victoria. Parks Vic do do a decent job of maintaining Westerfolds Park and associated tracks in and out of the city. The Main Yarra Trail is mostly in decent condition, and most of those tracks allow for safe cycling above 20 kilometres an hour, which is good for allowing a decent average speed for inbound city commuters. Sealing this section of the track would be sealing a missing link of the Main Yarra Trail. From The Parkway onward the track is sealed; it joins local Manningham tracks. There is also a link to Eltham midway through the unsealed section that would greatly help riders from Nillumbik to use the Main Yarra Trail if it was sealed. The unsealed distance is 4.5 kilometres—it is not a huge job. There is a certain portion—a few hundred metres—that is currently elevated for vegetation protection purposes and not in need of sealing. Thus, as I have said, the job is not a huge one.

So my matter tonight is to ask the minister to make funds available in this or the following budget to seal this missing link of the Main Yarra Trail to give cyclists, runners and walkers the better facilities they need to use the Main Yarra Trail to its full extent.