When a new section of a New South Wales bike trail opened at the start of March, it was touted as a “spectacular” project that would attract more visitors in the area.
But a month on, police say they’re investigating hundreds of tacks, nails and screws that they believe were “deliberately placed” on the track and the local mayor is admitting the council dropped the ball when it came to consulting the public on the project.
The 24km Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail opened on 1 March between Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby, making use of the disused railway corridor from the passenger trains that stopped running in 2004. However, the removal of the tracks to make way for a bike trail has been controversial among community groups committed bringing trains back to the region.
In a statement this week, Det Ch Insp Matthew Kehoe said those responsible may have underestimated the serious nature of the offence.
“We’ve had several reports of people injured or children who have needed to push their bikes a number of kilometres due to flat tyres caused by tacks scattered over the track,” Kehoe said.
“This dangerous and disgraceful behaviour has impacted many members of our community.”
Beth Shelley, the chairperson of the Northern Rivers Railway Action Group, said there was “a lot of anger” in the community, as many felt there had not been adequate community consultation and landholders concerned about people coming through their property. The group does not condone the leaving of nails on the trail, she said.
“I don’t believe that anyone that I’m connected with would do anything like putting tacks on the trail, but I don’t know absolutely everybody out there and I do know there are quite a lot of different groups who are unhappy about it,” Shelley said.
The pro-rail group has never been opposed to having a bike trail, Shelley said – instead, they would like to see the rail brought back as well.
“We desperately need rail in this area,” she said, noting that elderly, poor and young people were especially disadvantaged when it came to public transport.
The Tweed shire council mayor, Chris Cherry, said the council did not conduct shire-wide consultation on whether the community wanted the project to proceed. There was more thorough consultation on an earlier trial of a 2km section, she said.
“I will own, as the mayor, that we did drop the ball on the due consultation on this project,” Cherry said.
“I think the crux of the matter is not so much about whether the trail itself was OK … but if it was OK to take up the tracks because that’s the thing that’s upset most people.”
While many wanted to retain the tracks and have a dual use of the corridor, Cherry said it was not physically feasible due to steeping and sloping sections.
She did not rule out the possibility that rail could return to the area because an agreement had been made with the state government that the lease could be broken in future if needed for public transport.
Cherry said people are still using the trail despite the sharp objects.
“I think whoever’s doing it doesn’t understand it could have really serious repercussions for them,” she said. “The police are taking it very seriously.”
Tiffany Stodart, the council’s destination manager, said while most residents and visitors have enthusiastically embraced the rail trail, it was “extremely disappointing to see incidents of sabotage along the track continuing and risking serious injury to trail users, including families and children”.
Despite the controversy, Cherry said the bike trail has brought a new energy to the shire as “people are coming from everywhere”, drawing 8,000 users in the first two weeks alone.
Cherry said the coastal areas attract a lot of tourism but the rail trail brings more people to the northern rivers hinterland.
