Bike
MTB
Relaxing rides and radical descents: The best MTB trails in Australia
Do you have a hankering for an off-road adventure on two wheels? Here are our favourite mountain bike trails in the country!
Mountain biking (MTB) made its way to Australia in the late ‘80s, when a collection of muddy jungle trails were cut through Queensland’s northern tableland.
By 1996, local rider Glen Jacobs had managed to drag the Mountain Biking World Championships to Cairns, and Australia’s mongrel, mullet-topped MTB scene started to get some international publicity. The country became MTB’s wild southern frontier: a vast, sparsely populated wilderness with unlimited trail potential – from the Victorian Alps to the sandy deserts of Western Australia.
Today, the Australian MTB scene is thriving, especially in the eastern high country, when the ski season goes into hibernation. Every state is vectored with well-marked, singletrack networks, and most of them are maintained by local bike clubs. Here are some of our favourites; what we believe to be the best mountain bike trails in Australia, whether you're looking for a cruisey Sunday afternoon ride or an adrenaline-inducing downhill sesh.
01
Smithfield Mountain Bike Park | QLD
Oh-natch-ooh-ral Smithfield
© Brad Newton / Flow MTB
The original and best, and home to a key stop on the Crankworx World Tour, Smithfield Mountain Bike Park in Cairns, Northern Queensland is something of a must-ride, to the point of prilgrimage. If you take your riding seriously, that is. There's more than 60kms of trail here, with all three difficulty ratings accounted for, meaning there's something for everyone. It's also one of the most picturesque parks in the country with dense rainforest and elevation that gives you postcard-level views of the Great Barrier Reef. It also has an international draw like nothing else in Australia, so it's any wonder (and maybe about time) that it joined the Crankworx World Tour for 2024.
02
The Alpine Epic | VIC
How are your quads feeling? Bit sore? You’re going to need every sinew and twitch fibre to power through Victoria’s infamous Alpine Epic. This is the jewel in Mt Buller’s mountain bike crown and the first IMBA-accredited Epic trail in the Southern Hemisphere: 40km of pristine alpine track, climbing to over 1600m above sea level. You’ll pass through snow gum woodlands, granite valleys and ferny glades, all the way up to meadows of wild heather. If you can only ride one trail in Victoria, start with this.
03
Mawson Trail | SA
Mawson has a bit of everything, really. It’s 900km of rough-cut fire track, National Park trail, outback scrub and dirt road, running all the way from Adelaide to Blinman, right up in the sun-beaten Flinders Ranges. This is remote, brutal country, particularly in summer, but you don’t have to do the full, two-week journey in one go. Try starting from the Barossa Valley and working your way up to towns like Hallett and Spalding. Keep an eye on weather reports too: if there’s been heavy rains in the last few weeks, some of the trail might be washed out.
04
Simpsons Gap Bike Path | NT
Simpsons Gap is a sealed, cross-country track, which might not appeal to hardcore MTB fans, but it’s great for beginners and anyone who wants to explore the Central Australian Desert in comfort…relatively speaking. You don’t have to be super fit to tackle Simpsons Gap: the elevation is only 84m over a length of 16.5km. You’ll be riding through the shadow of the Western MacDonnell Ranges, through River Red Gum forests and groves of Witchetty Bush and Mulga, all the way to the gorge at Simpsons Gap. Don’t forget your camera, especially at sunset.
05
Stromlo Forest Park | ACT
Switching gears here. Australia’s Capital Territory is better known for legal fireworks and marijuana (apparently people govern from there, too) but it’s also got Stromlo Forest Park, which has been open to the public since 1967. These days it’s Canberra’s adventure playground: only 15 minutes from the city centre, and criss-crossed with world-class MTB routes. You’ll find everything here. Double black diamond tracks, log rides, gravity MTB and 50km of well-maintained, professionally designed trails. ‘Skyline’ and ‘The Luge’ are our personal favourites.
06
Blue Derby | TAS
Derby is a little mining town on the northeast corner of Tasmania, surrounded by temperate rainforest reserves in every direction. Nobody paid Derby much attention until 2015, when 125km of webbing trails were cut through the surrounding wilderness, creating the Tasmanian MTB equivalent of Disneyland. The network is known as Blue Derby. Alan Vogt, Kowalski Brothers’ head trail designer, has compared Blue Derby to the best runs of Whistler, Rotorua, Squamish and Cumberland. The park is open 365 days a year and it’s completely free. You can check out the various trails over here.
07
Maydena Bike Park | TAS
Maydena Bike Park
© Tasmania
Another Tasmania MTB trail? You betcha. Well, Maydena Bike Park packs a whole heap of them varying from all levels so if you're starting, this is the place for you. Looking for advanced trails? This is also the place for you.
The park packs over 70 trails with services to boot including bike hire, bike shop/retail area, bike school, café, restaurant, bar, and accommodation.
It was also be the host of Red Bull Hardline and its debut in Australia which was beyond exciting for the MTB community.
08
Munda Biddi Trail | WA
Looking for something a bit more challenging? Welcome to Munda Biddi in Western Australia. It’s a 1000km trail (yep, really), snaking all the way from Perth to Albany. ‘Munda Biddi’ means ‘path through the forest’, which is apt, because in all those thousand kilometres, your wheels will hardly touch tarmac. Munda Biddi has a website where you can plan your adventure. The full trail takes around 3-4 weeks, depending on your fitness level. By day, you’ll pedal through eucalypt scrub and granite outcrops in WA’s Darling Range. By night, you’ll kip in remote shelters, dotted every 50km or so along the route.
09
Margaret River Trails | WA
Munda Biddi might be the most challenging trail in Western Australia, but Margaret River, on the state’s windswept southern coast, is still the unofficial home of MTB. In fact, the government just announced the South West Mountain Bike master plan, which promises nearly 500km of new trails in the region. There’s a good variety of technical single tracks in Margaret River itself, with ‘Middle Earth’ being the most famous. Check out towns like Busselton and Dunsborough too: you’ll find good intermediate trails full of jumps, berms, logs and roll-overs. There’s a comprehensive trail list over here.
Be sure to check out the Crankworx World Tour as it makes landfall in Cairns' Smithfield Mountain Bike Park this year.
