Retirees Mike and Margie Browne say Queensland’s Pioneer Valley Rail Trail has been a reason to get out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\n
They have for the past two years been helping to build a 40-kilometre trail for mountain bikers, walkers and horse riders by connecting disused sugarcane railways west of Mackay.<\/p>\n
The work got harder in January when Mr Browne was diagnosed with lymphoma and the couple had to start visiting a hospital for chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
“It’s given us something to think about rather than dealing with anything to do with health,” Mr Browne said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had to rely on other people to do physical things.”<\/p>\n
The Brownes have been exploring rail trails throughout Australia. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
The couple joined the volunteer group of about 15 people with the aim of creating a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n
“We want to help get Mackay and Mackay’s small communities on the map,” Ms Browne said.<\/p>\n
She has been by her husband’s side to help with the physical and logistical work.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Debris and markers of the route’s previous life helped guide the construction team. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
During the wet seasons they have travelled around Australia and tested out their bikes on other rail trails.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been living in our caravan motorhome till now,” Ms Browne said.<\/p>\n
“We both love to travel, but this [project] has given Mike some time to rest up and I’ve been able to do stuff that he can’t sometimes.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The trail runs close to cane rail lines that are still in use. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
After thousands of hours in conversations with cane farmers and hard work battling fences and natural springs, the first section of trail has unofficially opened to the public.<\/p>\n
“Eventually it’ll be part of the entire section that will run from the harbour up to Finch Hatton,” Mr Browne said.<\/p>\n
Tourism boom<\/p>\n
The total length of the more than 100 rail trails in Australia has grown from 2,100 kilometres in 2014 to 3,180km.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Damian McCrohan says trails are proving to be a tourism drawcard. (Supplied: Damian McCrohan)<\/p>\n
The success of other trails, such as the one in the Boyne Burnett Valley, should act as a model for new routes, according to Rail Trails Australia president Damian McCrohan.<\/p>\n
“They’ve seen a lot of people specifically going to that region now to ride it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s a hotel opened at Many Peaks [population 149], there’s cafes setting up along the way to cater for rail trail users.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It took five years and countless conversations with farmers to secure the route. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
The organisation did not have hard numbers on visitation, but Mr McCrohan said the popularity of some routes close to city centres had pushed totals into the hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n
He said the challenge for volunteer-run trails was maintaining them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pioneer Valley is home to nearly 9,000 people.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
‘Just amazing’<\/p>\n
The dream for the Pioneer Valley volunteers is to connect Mackay’s city gates to Finch Hatton, 60 kilometres to the west, which is the trailhead for a recently opened series of mountain biking tracks.<\/p>\n
Adam Carter bought the Criterion Hotel in Finch Hatton in 2022 and said the community had welcomed the increase in visitors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adam Carter bought the hotel after work on the trail got underway. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
“The trails that they’ve built within the mountains behind us here are just amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a beautiful spot. You’ve got Finch Hatton Gorge \u2014 there’s a lot to offer.”<\/p>\n
The Brownes intend to keep working on the next stage of the rail trail.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first stage of the Finch Hatton mountain bike trails were opened in April 2024.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n
Mr Browne is optimistic that connecting the existing mountain-bike park in Finch Hatton to the broader valley will see the tourism spend spread.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen these small communities [across Australia] just exploding, like Finch Hatton has and will, because of all these people coming to the area,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a natural spin-off.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retirees Mike and Margie Browne say Queensland’s Pioneer Valley Rail Trail has been a reason to get out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18564,64,63,99,1617,18565,18569,18571,18567,18568,18566,18572,18562,18561,18563,18570],"class_list":{"0":"post-17433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-active-tourism","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cancer","13":"tag-cane-rail","14":"tag-caravan-motorhome","15":"tag-finch-hatton","16":"tag-grey-nomad","17":"tag-lymphoma","18":"tag-mackay-sugar","19":"tag-mountain-biking","20":"tag-pioneer-valley","21":"tag-rail-trail","22":"tag-rail-trails-australia","23":"tag-volunteers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}