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Capital Idea
A RIDE AROUND CANBERRA’S 145KM CENTENARY TRAIL
WORDS & PHOTOS: WOLTER KUIPER
It’s doubtful that noted architect and town planner Sir Walter Burley Griffin envisaged a future in which mountain bike riding would be a thing when he and his wife designed Australia’s capital in 1911. Luckily for us, the layout of Canberra, a city built around a man-made lake and surrounded by forest reserves and mountains, certainly lends itself to riding and it was no great drama to create a 145km cross-country loop around that city to mark the centenary of the country’s political hub. It cost just $3.3 million.
The Centenary Trail takes in Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial before heading out into the bush, but there are numerous other places where you can start, including the Northern Border Campground, which is a ride-in/ride-out area, and the Mt Stromlo MTB Park in the south, which is a ride-through/stay-elsewhere one. There’s even a book about the trail, which splits it into 16 walkable chunks but gives cyclists the option of doing it in three days.
I did attempt some of the path on a flatbar roadbike, but that was a mistake. Although the trail does include some of Canberra’s excellent shared-path network it’s not enough to justify putting your wrists through hell on washouts and corrugations. In places the bike track detours around stairs, leaving some of the best views for walkers. In others, you ride along the side of cut-off drains, built to intercept run-off from hill slopes that are close to housing.
There are a couple of subways under the freeway system which appear to have been installed in preparation for urban sprawl but are doing sterling service for trail users in the meantime. In the less-friendly category is something they call step-through gates on some nature reserves and farmland. The bikes are supposed to go over the top, which might not be fun with an e-bike.
Most of the trail uses gravel roads, like those through Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary, but there’s also some sections of reasonable singletrack near the border campground if you refuse to be distracted by the Stromlo and Mt Majura Pines trails.
Disappointingly, Hall’s historic Wood Duck Inn closed in 2017, after only 135 years, and was an upmarket restaurant when I rode through town. Highlights for me were the Australian Institute of Sport and riding among the thousands of trees at the National Arboretum … the trees are still small enough for you to have a good view of the city. There isn’t a lot of accommodation close to the trail but most Australian Capital Territory buses can carry two bikes.
