Hollybank

Overview

Hollybank Mountain Bike Park is a forest-based trail network in Hollybank Reserve (Underwood), about a 20-minute drive north-east of Launceston via the Tasman Highway and B81 (Launceston–Lilydale Road). Built into a working production-forest demonstration reserve managed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania, the network combines low-grade family loops at the trailhead with a one-way gravity descent — the Juggernaut — that has become one of the iconic trails in northern Tasmania.

The original ~20 km network was designed and constructed by Dirt Art (with descent design input from former World Cup downhiller Nathan Rennie and trail designer Rob Potter) and opened in 2014–2015 as part of the wider North East Tasmania Mountain Bike Project. It is positioned as a stand-alone day-ride near Launceston and as a warm-up / cool-down destination en route to Blue Derby in the state's north-east.

Riders typically start at the McNeill / picnic-area trailhead for the No Sweat green and Tall Timbers blue loops plus the skills/pump track area, and either pedal or shuttle the gravel access road to the top to ride the Juggernaut descent (with the optional Reverb and Ginger Ridge double-black expert lines near the top). The shuttle road is a gazetted public road; commercial shuttles run from Mountain Bike Tasmania and the on-site Hollybank Treetops Adventure operation.

Location & Access

Address: Hollybank Reserve, B81 (Launceston–Lilydale Road), Underwood TAS 7268
Treetops/main precinct address: 66 Hollybank Road, Underwood TAS 7268
Drive times: ~25 min from Launceston CBD; ~25 min from Launceston Airport; ~2 hr 15 min from Hobart; ~1 hr from Devonport (via Bass Highway).
Public transport: None practical — private car / shuttle only.
Parking: Sealed/gravel parking at the McNeill (picnic-area) trailhead. Additional informal parking near the access road.
Shuttle road: ~10.5 km gravel public road from base to top of Juggernaut; ~400 m elevation gain; 12–15 min drive each way.

Best Season & Conditions

Open year-round. Free public access; no booked day-use.
Best riding: late spring through autumn (October to April). Forest cover keeps trails ridable through summer; cooler shoulder seasons are most popular.
Winter: ridable but exposed sections can be greasy / boggy after rain; tree fall is the most common closure cause given the production-forest setting.
Closures: Sustainable Timber Tasmania publishes road and track closures (forestry operations, fire-danger days, weather). Riders are advised to check the STT road/track closures page and the LMBC trail status page before riding.
Mobile coverage is limited in parts of the reserve — let someone know your plan.

Managing Body & Trail Builders

Land manager: Sustainable Timber Tasmania (working production forest with reserve status).
Trail design & construction: Dirt Art (with design contributions from Rob Potter and Nathan Rennie). Stonework by Jon Sidney.
Volunteer maintenance: Launceston Mountain Bike Club (LMBC) — runs working bees, owns the canonical trail map PDF.
Adjacent commercial operator: Hollybank Treetops Adventure (zipline/Segway; separate business at the same precinct).
Commercial MTB shuttles & tours: Mountain Bike Tasmania.

Managing-body string for DB: Sustainable Timber Tasmania (land); Launceston Mountain Bike Club (trails) — the current DB value of "Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania (State Forest)" is incorrect and should be corrected.

History & Background

Hollybank Reserve was developed as a forestry demonstration site and picnic area decades before the MTB network; the surrounding forest includes Tasmanian native ash and introduced European species (pine, larch, Douglas fir, redwood) planted as part of the demonstration plantings.
The MTB park was built in 2014 by Dirt Art as part of the $4M North East Tasmania Mountain Bike Project, which also seeded Blue Derby.
The Juggernaut is the headline descent — frequently described as "unlike anything else in Tasmania at the time" by riding press of the era — and remains a draw for visitors prepping for or recovering from a Derby trip.
LMBC has taken on volunteer-led maintenance under permission of STT, which is the typical Tasmanian model for trail-on-forestry-land networks.