The HER RIDE MTB skills day was held on Saturday December 4 at Gap Creek Reserve.
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HER RIDE MTB SKILLS DAY REVIEW
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BQ Transport Survey 2023
In April, Bicycle Queensland conducted a Transport Survey to gain a better understanding of changing transportation options. We asked BQ members and non-members about:
- Transport options
- Changing transport options
- Safety
- Long distance travel on trains with bikes.
We’ve summarised the key findings in the infographic below!
The Board of Bicycle Queensland wishes to advise members that from Monday 8 May, our CEO since 2019, Rebecca Randazzo will be departing the organisation to be replaced by Interim CEO, Lisa Davies Jones.
Lisa is a passionate cyclist, a long-time volunteer Director of the organisation and an experienced CEO who has worked in both the Health and Fitness sectors. Lisa enjoys riding as both a commuter and social rider and also competes in the occasional masters road race and time trail event.
Lisa looks forward to working with the Board and the Bicycle Queensland’s dedicated team of staff to continue to grow the number of people riding. Lisa has a particular interest in supporting more women to start riding, through access to networks of other women riders across Queensland.
As she leaves BQ, the board thanks outgoing CEO Rebecca Randazzo for her commitment to the organisation over more than three years.
Rebecca has been a passionate advocate for cycling. She has steered the organisation through the challenging times of COVID and the 2022 flooding of our office at Milton, delivered great advocacy wins such as the introduction of the Brisbane CityLink Cycleway and an expansion in Queensland Government support for rail trails, modernised the member experience and developed the successful HER Ride program.
As members know, Bicycle Queensland is a wonderful organisation. We have been around since 1979, today have 13,000 members and have delivered years of significant advocacy wins, great events and strong support for bike riders.
We look forward to continuing to support you our members in the months and years ahead and to working with you to make Queensland a better place by getting more people riding more often.
Your sincerely,
Rachel Nolan
Chair
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2023 Membership Price Update
Dear Members,
As the year comes to end, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support through what has been an incredibly challenging year for Bicycle Queensland (BQ). This year has seen BQ overcome losing our office in the February floods and cancelling the Brisbane to Gold Coast Cycle Challenge event due to circumstances outside our control. We have a long way to go, but your support has enabled us to continue the critical advocacy and education work we do across Queensland.
Our recent trip to the Annual Local Government Authority conference in Cairns has enabled us to connect with councillors and reinforce our campaigning on the role riding plays in connecting communities and building a robust adventure tourism industry. Our new heavy vehicle virtual reality experience is another example of how we continue to innovate the way we educate road users to work towards a safer and more harmonious transport network.
Whilst there is still much to do, we continue to work hard to achieve our mission of getting more people riding more often. To ensure we can continue to provide a comprehensive membership, we’ll be increasing the cost of our membership categories from 1st January 2023.
| Type | Monthly | Annually |
| Individual | $12.99 | $134 |
| Household of 2 | $15.99 | $172 |
| Household of 3+ | $17.99 | $198 |
| Individual Concession | $9.99 | $99 |
| BQ Supporter (excludes insurance) | $5.00 | $49 |
This increase will ensure you retain the best value-for-money cycling membership in Australia. You will also retain the same level of insurance, which is the best insurance product available. I thought it was important to share with you what this increase will also allow us to:
- Continue to develop the City Link bike way after confirmation it will become a permeant piece of infrastructure
- Advocate for making spaces for passengers to bring their bikes on the Tilt Train from Rockhampton to Brisbane, opening up cycle tourism possibilities and connections with regional rail trails.
- Invest and develop new technologies to educate all road users and encourage more people to ride
- Develop and invest in new digital tools to improve communication and the membership process
- Improve digital platforms to work strategically with regional and metropolitan Bicycle User Groups
- Develop new events in partnership with like-minded organisations to reach and service members outside southeast Queensland
- Assist us to meet the rising cost of insurance and operational expenses
This increase will enable us to continue to provide the quality and breadth of services you love and expect from us. If you have any questions about the price increase or membership packages, don’t hesitate to contact me or our membership team.
Happy and safe riding.
Rebecca Randazzo
Bicycle Queensland, CEO
Bicycle Queensland says the Federal Government is missing a major opportunity to create real change in the move towards electric vehicles.
BQ has joined with all the major bicycle advocacy groups in a submission to the Federal Government’s National Electric Vehicle strategy.
The group has called for the Strategy to recognise the potential for e-bikes and other light electric vehicles to contribute to the goals of the National EV Strategy.
E-bikes and micro-mobility are increasingly popular as car replacements for daily commuting trips, they address the cost-of-living crisis through significantly lower acquisition and running costs than EVs, they are viable for the short transport trips that make up half of all trips each day in Australia and their use contributes to health, environmental and community benefits.
But at the moment, e-bikes are not included in the National Strategy.
View our joint submission here.
The Boyne-Burnett Inland Rail Trail (BBIRT) is a great success story of grassroots actions by communities a long way away from the seat of power. Last weekend a second section was officially opened, 30km of trail from Mt Debateable to Mundubbera.
This is the “Bridges” section of the BBIRT, as the rail corridor runs beside the mighty Burnett River, and crosses the many creeks feeding the river as they run off Mt Gayndah and the Binjour Plateau. The bridges which cross these creeks are listed by Engineers Australia as being of heritage significance.
Unfortunately floods have seen off two of these bridges, Reid Creek and Philpott, making it difficult for the rail trail to run along the corridor the entire distance from Gayndah to Mundubbera. At present, the trail starts 10km out of town in Mt Debateable siding, as the Reid Creek crossing prevents the trail from connecting into Gayndah. However, there is a detour around the site, where the bridge across Philpott Creek once was, adding a few kilometres to the journey.
Like many Queensland rail trails, this is an adventure experience. There are sandy sections, bumpy sections, and a few steep pinches out of gullies. The trail is best suited to a mountain bike (e-mtb is becoming popular too).
But for the adventurous who attempt the Bridges section of the BBIRT, you are rewarded with great views, and several plaques marking historical sites of interest.
‘Packs and Pedals’ runs a shuttle service on the BBIRT, and they can help you explore either the Bridges section or the Tunnels section from Kalpowar to Ubobo in the Boyne Valley.
Major construction has commenced at UQ Lakes station in St Lucia. Bike riders will see changed conditions through the area as construction takes place. The Eleanor Schonell Bridge bikeway will be temporarily closed, but alternatives routes to navigate the affected area can be found below.
You can find more details of the construction notice here.
To find out more details check out the Councils website here.
Wouldn’t it be great if regular bike riders (such as Bicycle Queensland members for instance) had somewhere local that they could drop off for recycling those consumable items of bike riding, such as tyres, tubes and chains?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a central location for people who are interested in low-cost bike riding could access second-hand parts, especially those items such as cranks, saddles, seat posts, and wheels which often have a useful life long after they are no longer the latest and greatest.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was somewhere for mums and dads (such as Bicycle Queensland members for instance) to be able to donate children’s bikes and even adult bikes which are no longer needed but still have plenty of useful life ahead of them?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a central training location in our largest regional city for bicycle shops to send trainee mechanics, which also had the side benefit of fixing up low-cost donated bikes to go to worthy recipients?
The City of Gold Coast is looking at all these ideas coming together in a cycling/recycling hub. The City’s Water and Waste team hosted the first public discussions on the idea this week, and Bicycle Queensland’s Director of Advocacy Andrew Demack was there to support the concept.
Also represented in industry and community meetings were bike retailers and manufacturers, as well as groups such as Men’s Sheds and community bike repair groups.
“Bicycle Queensland’s members have so much to contribute to this type of Council-led project,” Demack said.
“We are enthusiastically supporting this project and hope to see it move from concept to pilot as soon as possible. I am sure that there are local groups in Brisbane and all the major regional cities which would love to see councils engage in proactively promoting a circular economy approach to the bike industry and many other industries.
“Bikes are well-suited to be ahead of the curve on this because the bike riding community is already very engaged on sustainability and recycling,” Demack said.
