Creswick Pump Track is almost ready to be unveiled

With only the carpark and landscaping to be finished, builders are working through the heat to complete the much-anticipated project by late February.

Trail builder Gerran Turner said specialty equipment was brought in during the construction of the track.

A robotic compactor, controlled by a remote control, was used to create perfect dips on the track safely.

“We use them on all of these jobs. It helps to get compaction all the way to the top of the burns – it’s really the only safe way to have such a big machine up there.

“Otherwise you have to have a person sitting in the cab driving and it’s just not that safe because they do roll over quite often.” 

Creswick Trail Construction Manager Mick McCallum said the community had been very supportive of the project and the construction at the park, with residents staying off the track while it is a construction site. 

He said the team was currently out doing trail alignments and mapping out the 100 kilometres of the wider trail network, before it handed it over to landowners for approval. 

The team will then look at cultural and environmental heritage.

Hepburn Shire Council Mayor Don Henderson said cultural studies undertaken prior to construction of the track meant it would be more than just for keen riders.

“We have taken into account the mining history of the area. The idea is that rather than destroy the mining history, we will be enhancing the knowledge of it because people can go along walking or riding and seeing sites like old mining huts.”

The two projects, the Pump Track and Creswick Trails Project, had initially started separately but have ended up complimenting each other.

“It won’t just be for bikes – this will be the start of the re-development of Hammon Park and an ideal start to bring people to the Trail Head,” he said.

The 100-kilometre mountain bike trail network, which will link pine plantation forest and heritage gold field areas, will put Creswick on the international mountain biking map with the Victorian Government expecting 80,000 people to visit the attraction within five years of its opening. 

The entire project is anticipated to open to the public by the end of 2020.