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The sight of ute-racked, mud-caked mountain bikes has become commonplace on the New South Wales South Coast, and is a sign of hope in transforming the region into mainland Australia's mountain biking mecca.
More than 65 kilometres of mountain bike trails opened in Narooma just before Christmas, and vehicles in the trailhead car park often have number plates from South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT.
The trails are part of more than 250 kilometres of new trails in Narooma, Eden, and Mogo funded by more than $16 million in grants from the federal Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund Package.
Eden's trails opened in November, trails in Mogo are expected to open in the coming months, and combined with existing tracks at Cooma, Jindabyne, Tathra, and Thredbo there's now almost 500 kilometres of mountain bike trails within a three-hour drive in south-east NSW.
Riding bikes in a surf town
Keen mountain bikers Georgie Staley and her husband David saw the economic difference trails could make to towns around America, rejuvenating otherwise struggling regional areas.
"After a while we thought 'Well, why can't we do that [in Narooma]?'" she said.
On top of working 65 hours a week running local small businesses, the couple began shaping and grooming trails in the neighbouring state forest with rake hoes and a mattock in their spare time.
Initially, they were the only people riding the trails they were building.
Soon they started seeing tyre tracks from other riders.
"You knew every cyclist in town. There were fewer than ten of us," she said.
Becoming an international destination
Ms Staley started Narooma MTB Club in 2018 as the president and was surprised with 30 inaugural members.
The club now has more than 150 members as more and more locals get caught up in the mountain bike frenzy.
Since opening, Narooma's trails have already been likened to the world-famous trails of Whistler, Canada, and Australia's mountain biking capital of Derby in Tasmania.
"We've had people say they're Australia's best mountain bike trails," Ms Staley said.
"People compare us to Derby. But I don't want to be Derby, I want to be Narooma."
Already, the trails are putting the south coast on the map.
One rider Ms Staley met on the trails drove from Brisbane as soon as he heard the trails had opened.
Another rider, visiting from Colorado, told Ms Staley that America had nothing comparable to Narooma.
The Narooma mountain bike web is beyond anything Ms Staley could have imagined when she first started working the ground with her mattock, and she says its popularity is worth all the effort.
"I knew we were going to be busy but I didn't realise we were going to be this busy," she said.
"You know then that what you've done is right."
Creating year-round tourism
Ms Staley said mountain biking was transforming the way the south coast does tourism.
"During the middle parts of the year our economy just takes a huge dive and we're so quiet," she said.
"These trails will attract visitors year-round."
Now businesses are contacting Ms Staley asking how they can help boost mountain bike tourism.
Joel Baty, known to Batemans Bay locals as "Bikeman", opened his cycle shop in Batehaven in August just two kilometres from one of the new trailheads for the Mogo trails.
The store is inundated daily with young children interested in buying their first mountain bikes, or tourists wanting to rent a bike for the day.
Mr Baty said opening the store was only possible because of the popularity of the new trails, but said he was still nervous to commit.
"We were looking at all the numbers and we're thinking 'man we can't do that, that's just too much'," he said.
"But then we just look at what mountain biking has done for places like Derby and it's a no-brainer."
He said when he arrived in the region in 2010 there were just a few bush tracks and a handful of people riding them.
"It was not really recognised and one of those things that not many people knew about," he said.
"Now we're on the doorstep of one of the best mountain bike parks in Australia."
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