Top 5 MTB Parks in Tasmania: Maydena, Derby and Beyond

· MTB Trails Australia

Trail Guide Tasmania Roundup Gravity

Tasmania runs 125 km of free World Trail-built singletrack at Derby, 820 m of shuttle-served gravity at Maydena, a 42 km mountain-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

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) 5 Mountain Pass + $95 uplift ~3 hr
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

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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. A joint initiative between Dorset Council and Break O'Day Council secured $3.25 million in federal and state funding, brought in World Trail (Glen Jacobs) to design the network, and opened the first 20 km of singletrack on 7 February 2015. The EWS came two years later. The town now sees 45,000+ MTB-specific visits per year and generates an estimated $50.9 million in direct annual visitor expenditure.

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 (blue) is the standard first ride: a long loop of mixed climbing and descending that shows you why everyone stays longer than planned. Detonate (double-black) is the other end — voted best trail of the Enduro World Series in 2017, short and violent. Derby took Trail of the Year at both the 2017 and 2019 EWS. 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.

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

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Simon French of Dirt Art first scouted Abbots 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.

Uplift hours are seasonal: the summit bus starts at 9:30am with the last uplift by 4pm in spring and summer, shifting to 9am–3:30pm in autumn. Maydena sorts its trails by riding style as well as difficulty — flow, freeride, climbing and wilderness lines each sit alongside the colour grades — 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 (2026/27): every rider needs a Mountain Pass —

5 adult /
5 child per day — and from 3 October 2026 it is no longer bundled with uplift. The Summit Uplift Pass is $95 adult (15+) / $85 child (under 15) on top, so a full summit day is
20 adult /
00 child bought as two separate products. The annual Mountain Pass, now the Elevation Club, is
75 adult /
65 child. Opening hours vary by season: Thu–Sun in spring and autumn, expanding to 5–7 days during December–January and Easter.

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 (28 June to 2 October, with Opening Weekend on 3 October 2026). 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 mountain rainforest to white sand beach

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The Bay of Fires Trail is the headline: 42 km from Poimena on the Blue Tier, shedding roughly 740 m of elevation 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 highland-to-coast in a single ride.

The wider network is ~110 km across two zones. The Flagstaff Trailhead (a five-minute drive up the hill from the township) holds around 24 km of stacked XC and flow loops — green through blue — while Loila Tier carries the black-diamond gravity lines: Send Helens, Icarus, and Shucka, added in June 2020, plus Mack 10 (1.9 km) since. Gravity Isle Shuttles handles uplifts to Loila Tier and the Blue Tier Bay of Fires start, currently available by arrangement rather than to a fixed timetable (typically 4-rider minimum); Vertigo MTB also runs these shuttles. 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 $4.5 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

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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 access road, with double-black expert chutes 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: a green loop, a blue circuit, a pump track, and a jump track.

Commercial guided shuttles run through Mountain Bike Tasmania (

95 for a guided four-hour tour, bike and shuttle included). Unguided access to the trails and road is free at all times; no booking required.

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: Juggernaut from the top. Get there early, do two laps.

5. Penguin MTB Park — the north-west coast wildcard

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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 and the Iron Tor trail).

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 28 June to 2 October for winter, reopening 3 October 2026. 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. Remember the Mountain Pass is now bought separately from the uplift. The annual Mountain Pass (

75) replaces only the
5 daily Mountain Pass, not the uplift, so it takes about 11 days of riding to pay for itself.

St Helens shuttles (Gravity Isle): by arrangement, bookable via Rezdy or 0474 371 365. Book 1–2 weeks ahead during school holidays — they fill.

Derby accommodation: Blue Derby Pods Ride is the dedicated MTB accommodation and fills fast in summer. Multiple Airbnbs and the Dorset Hotel are alternatives. Book early if you're visiting December–January or Easter.

Hollybank and Penguin: Walk-up, no booking needed.

FAQ

Is Blue Derby suitable for beginners? More than most riders expect. The green trails — Axehead, Riverside, Lake Derby, Hazy Days — are genuine entry points: smooth, well-drained, and fun without consequence. Confident intermediates can get to Krushka's on day one. The hard stuff (Detonate, Kumma-Gutza, Air-ya-garn) is well separated from easier riding and easy to avoid until you're ready for it.

How far is Maydena Bike Park from Hobart? About 1 hour 15 minutes via the Lyell Highway through Westerway. No public transport — car required. From Launceston Airport it's around 3 hours, running down the Midland Highway through Hobart.

Can you combine Blue Derby and Maydena on the same trip? Yes, though they're about 3 hours apart. The practical approach: fly Launceston, spend 2–3 days in the north-east (Derby + St Helens), then drive south through Hobart to Maydena for the second half. A week covers both comfortably.

Do I need a full-suspension bike at Maydena? For the summit zone, yes — it's steep and rough enough that a hardtail significantly limits the tech lines. Maydena has a full-suspension hire fleet on-site if you're travelling light: book ahead, especially during school holidays.

Are the best MTB parks in Tasmania close to each other? The north-east cluster — Derby, St Helens, Hollybank — sits within a 2-hour radius of Launceston. Maydena is the outlier to the south. Penguin is 90 minutes from Launceston on the north-west coast. A week covers all five; a long weekend handles the north-east trio comfortably.

Plan your trip

The Tasmania trails map has all five parks with current trail counts and facilities. For the north-east, the Blue Derby operator site has the most current shuttle links and accommodation options. Maydena's season calendar and uplift booking is at maydenabikepark.com. St Helens shuttle bookings go through Gravity Isle.

If you're comparing against mainland options, the best beginner MTB parks guide covers the national picture, and the Mt Buller vs Falls Creek guide breaks down the Victorian alpine parks in a similar format.

Tasmania rewards the riders who show up. There's genuinely nowhere else in Australia with this much trail quality per square kilometre of island.