Top 5 MTB Parks in Tasmania: Maydena, Derby and Beyond
Tasmania runs 125 km of free World Trail-built singletrack at Derby, 820 m of shuttle-served gravity at Maydena, a 44 km alpine-to-coast epic at St Helens, and a half-dozen smaller networks filling the gaps — the best MTB parks Tasmania offers are more concentrated than anywhere else in the country.
Almost all of them cluster in the north-east, within a two-hour radius of Launceston. Maydena is the outlier: an hour and a quarter south-west of Hobart, deep in the Derwent Valley. Between the five parks covered here, you have enough variety for a week of riding without retracing a single trail.
Quick picks
- Best overall: Blue Derby — 125+ km of free rainforest singletrack, a town built around bikes, and a trail network drawing 45,000+ MTB visitors a year
- Most vertical: Maydena Bike Park — 820 m summit-to-base, the biggest gravity park in Australia
- Best epic ride: St Helens Trails — the 44 km Bay of Fires Trail from 1,360 m alpine plateau to white sand coast
- Best from Launceston: Hollybank — 25 min from the CBD, 10 km Juggernaut descent, free
- Best first taste of TAS MTB: Penguin MTB Park — approachable XC on the NW coast with a legitimately fun freeride speedway bowl
- Best combined trip: Fly Launceston → Derby days 1–2 → St Helens day 3 → Hollybank day 4 → drive south to Maydena days 5–6 → fly Hobart
How do the best MTB parks in Tasmania compare?
| Park | Region | Trail network | Uplift | Entry | Drive from Launceston |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Derby | North-East | 125+ km, 40+ trails | Shuttle (paid) | Free | 90 min |
| Maydena Bike Park | Derwent Valley | 85+ trails, ~80 km | Bus + ATV (paid) | 20/day summit |
~2 hr via Lake St Clair |
| St Helens Trails | East Coast | ~110 km, 22+ trails | Shuttle (paid) | Free | 2 hr |
| Hollybank | Near Launceston | ~20 km + skills zone | Shuttle (commercial) | Free | 25 min |
| Penguin MTB Park | North-West | 15+ km + freeride bowl | None | Free | 90 min |
1. Blue Derby — 125 km of free rainforest singletrack
Derby was a tin-mining town of 3,000 in the 1920s. A dam collapse in 1929 gutted the local economy; by the 2010s the population had dwindled to around 100. Dorset Council secured $3.25 million in federal and state funding, brought in World Trail (Glen Jacobs) to design the network, and opened 30 km of singletrack in February 2015. The EWS came two years later. The town now sees 45,000+ MTB-specific visits per year and generates an estimated $77 million in annual economic activity.
The riding is built into temperate rainforest — myrtle beech, sassafras, tree fern — with granite slabs, river crossings, and ridge descents that drop hundreds of metres to the Ringarooma River. Krushka's (8.6 km, blue) is the standard first ride: a long looping descent that shows you why everyone stays longer than planned. Detonate (650 m, double-black) is the other end — EWS 2017 Trail of the Year, short and violent. Air-ya-garn was destroyed by a 2022 landslide and rebuilt with an 'infinity berm' from the rubble; it's arguably better now.
Blue Tier adds three shuttle-accessed descents, including The Blue Tier — a 22 km point-to-point through ancient rainforest that ends at the Weldborough Pub.
Town infrastructure is exceptional: two bike shops, multiple cafés, bike-specific accommodation, and several shuttle operators. Entry to the trail network is free, dawn to dusk.
If you only ride one trail at Derby: Krushka's first. If you've got a full-face and shuttle cash, Detonate.
2. Maydena Bike Park — Australia's biggest descent
Simon French of Dirt Art first scouted Abbotts Peak in 2008. He opened 35 km of family-funded trails on Australia Day 2018. It's now 85+ trails, ~80 km of singletrack, and 820 m of vertical drop — the largest descent-focused bike park in Australia.
The shuttle bus runs summit uplifts from 9am to 3:30pm. Maydena uses a dual "flow/tech" sub-grading system unusual in Australian parks: each difficulty level splits into easier flow lines and harder technical variants, so picking a run at the top of the mountain is more specific than standard green-blue-black. The 2023 UCI Enduro World Cup ran here. So did Red Bull Hardline Tasmania in 2024, 2025, and February 2026 — the third edition, with a new technical top section and 24 elite riders.
Pricing (2025/26): Summit Uplift Pass
Base village: café, restaurant, full-suspension hire, bike school, asphalt pump track, dirt jumps, skills area, and a wood-fired sauna. The sauna earns its place after a long day on the summit.
Maydena closes for winter (late June to late September). Check the operator's season calendar before booking.
If you only ride one trail at Maydena: Colour Blind for flow. Adam's Apple if you want to see what double-black tech actually means on this hill.
3. St Helens Trails — from alpine plateau to white sand beach
The Bay of Fires Trail is the headline: 44 km from 1,360 m on the Blue Tier alpine plateau, descending through myrtle canopy and dry sclerophyll, finishing on the white sand of Swimcart Beach in the internationally recognised Bay of Fires. Nothing else in Australian mountain biking puts alpine-to-coast in a single ride.
The wider network is ~110 km across two zones. The Flagstaff Trailhead (4 km south of the township) holds 66 km of stacked XC and flow loops — green through blue — plus three black-diamond gravity lines added in June 2020: Send Helens, Icarus, and Shucka. Gravity Isle Shuttles handles uplifts to Loila Tier and the Blue Tier Bay of Fires start, running Fri–Sun (mid-week by arrangement, typically 4-rider minimum). Book ahead during school holidays: 0474 371 365 or via Rezdy.
The whole thing was designed and built by World Trail — the same Glen Jacobs team behind Blue Derby — and opened in November 2019 after roughly $4.7 million in federal, state, and council funding.
Entry is free. The township has food, accommodation, and is an hour from Blue Derby, making a combined north-east trip an obvious itinerary for anyone making the crossing to Tasmania.
If you only ride one thing at St Helens: The Bay of Fires Trail. Shuttle to the top, half-day or more. Finish at the beach, swim.
4. Hollybank — Launceston's local gravity hit
Hollybank sits 25 minutes north-east of Launceston in Hollybank Reserve, a Sustainable Timber Tasmania production forest. Dirt Art built the network in 2014 as part of the same $4 million North East Tasmania Mountain Bike Project that seeded Blue Derby's early stages.
The headline is the Juggernaut — a 10 km blue-grade descent from the top of the 10.5 km access road, with double-black expert chutes (Ginger Ridge, Reverb) feeding the upper section for riders who want to commit. Pedal or shuttle to the top along a gazetted public road, free to drive. At the base: the No Sweat green loop (4.5 km), Tall Timbers blue circuit (3.6 km), pump track, and a jump track.
Commercial guided shuttles run through Mountain Bike Tasmania (
No café on-site — Lilydale is 10 minutes away, Launceston has everything else. Hollybank works as a half-day before or after Derby, and it's close enough to the airport to squeeze in before a late flight home.
If you only ride one thing at Hollybank: Ginger Ridge into Juggernaut from the top. Get there early, do two laps.
5. Penguin MTB Park — the north-west coast wildcard
Penguin makes no sense on paper. A volunteer-built MTB park on the disused Penguin Speedway, 2 km south of a seaside town on the Bass Highway. But the Cradle Coast Mountain Bike Club has turned the old oval into a genuinely engaging freeride zone — 6 m wallride, container drops, step-ups, dirt jumps — connected to 6+ km of XC singletrack and a gateway trail into the Dial Range hills behind the township (Montgomery Loop, 5.2 km; Iron Tor Descent, 3 km).
No toilets on-site, no café, no uplift. Bring water, pedal up. Entry is free. That's the logistics sorted.
The park works best as a half-day if you're rolling off the Spirit of Tasmania at Devonport (25 min drive) and want to shake the sea legs before driving east to Derby, or as a dedicated stop on a north-west tour. It's also the most accessible network on this list for younger riders — the green and blue loops are short, clear, and forgiving.
If you only ride one thing at Penguin: A few laps of the speedway bowl. The 6 m wallride is more fun than a volunteer-built coastal park has any right to be.
When is the best time to visit Tasmania's MTB parks?
October to April covers most situations. Spring (October–November) and autumn (March–April) are the pick: firm dirt, no dust, cool enough to push hard all day. Summer works — especially at Blue Derby where the rainforest canopy keeps temperatures reasonable — but December and January bring school-holiday crowds and real pressure on shuttle bookings and accommodation.
Maydena closes late June to late September for winter. Everything else — Derby, St Helens, Hollybank, Penguin — runs year-round in principle. Tasmania's winter weather is genuine, and some trails close briefly after heavy rain to protect tread. Check operator Facebook pages before making the drive.
What do you need to book ahead?
Maydena uplift bus: Book online at the operator site, especially for weekends and school holidays. The Annual Mountain Pass (