The Federal Labor Government has just announced that it will contribute $2.5 million to the North East Tasmania Cascade Forest and Blue Tier Iconic Mountain Bike Trails project.

Quoting staight from the medai release, the "Federal Minister for Regional Development and Local Government, Anthony Albanese said this funding will support the construction of 75 kilometres of world-class mountain bike trails across north east Tasmania."

That's got to be worth celebrating.

For the full media release click here.

If you want some more background on the project you can read the Potential for Mountain Biking in North Eastern Tasmania - Market Demand and Economic Assessment (March 2013) available from the Northern Tasmania Development website.  There's also some interesting documents on Launceton City Council's website for their May 20, 2013 meeting, including the 
North Eastern Mountain Bike Business Case (pdf).

The good news is that the new (and I think rather awesome) logo for the North East Trails (still under construction) has been released, and as commented by one person, it would make a rather awesome beer label for one of the microbrews at Weldborough Pub.  Not so good news is that the same article notes that the trails will open in early 2015, not December 2014 as has been previously reported in The Mercury newspaper.  Full details below.

The Blue Derby Trails are open (and awesome).  If you didn't get up there, then my advice is to change that as soon as you can.  In the meantime attached is Vol 1, issue 3 of the Blue Derby Newsletter which basically celebrates the opening of this first section of trails ...

The Blue Derby Pods are now open, offering a three-day, two-night guided ride with a unique accommodation – custom-made ‘pods’ that have been designed to give the occupier the feeling of being suspended just above the ground.

The first edition of a new newsletter highlighting what is happening with the Derby/ Blue Tier trails is now available.  Perhaps the most exciting news for we locals is that the first trails are likely to be open before Christmas (though some may argue that the new toilet block is also pretty exciting news). There's lots of other great information in the newsletter including news that Hertz are getting on board and will be offering bike racks and trailers from Launceston.  These are the small things that will make this whole concept work.

Our friend at ridetassie.com sent us this link to the new (and I think official) Ride Blue Derby website which is worth checking out while you're waiting for the trails to open on February 7.  It looks like it will be a great resource for those looking to go and ride the area, and let's just hope that the site is maintained and kept up to date.