OzVMX Forum
Clubroom => General Discussion => Topic started by: jimg1au on July 19, 2011, 07:31:44 pm
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i have been riding and testing bikes at menai for about 40 years.today i was approched by a aust fed policeman.he asked me what i was doing and i told him.plug chops and changing main jets,i also told him i was almost finished but he replied you are finished can i see your drivers lic.he then continued to tell me i was on ansto land and i could be in all sorts of trouble.i was on a small abandoned road near the tip entrence opp the mini bike club.he then showed me the brand new signs stating the new fines.
trespassing $1000.00
riding motorbike un regoed $1000.00
car parking 1000.00
my dad was with me another 1000.00.
he checked out everything lic car rego trailer rego
after about 20min he came back to me and said i was lucky as if it were the nsw police i would have coped the lot plus loss of points.he took my name and address and said to me this is your 1 and only warning next time it will be the fines.
these afp are at ansto accross the road and see the cars parked come over and book you.a worker from the tip came by as i was finished packing up and asked me how much of a fine i got as they do it all the time now the new signs are up.i said just a warning he said i was lucky.
never going to menai again
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I hear you Jim.
I dodged a similar bullet a few weeks ago, obviously you & I look like good, honest , hard working middle aged gentleman otherwise the gov't would be $5K better off.
Evidence that there are still fair & reasonable coppers out there, I don't know how many?
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http://www.ansto.gov.au/discovering_ansto/media_centre/media_releases_2011/ansto_media_releases_and_statements/ansto_moves_to_protect_walkers_and_bushland_from_bikes
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Thre are plans afoot for that land
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its right next to the tip and across the tip road from the st george mini bike club.i have riden there for years its a great entrance to all the old fire trails in menai.i cant see how a 4x4 can get you if you were on a bike with no car i can ride from there and end up at alfords point.all the mountain bike riders enter from the old ansto enterence rd.they are going to stop them as well acording to the signs on the above post
jim
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1,000 what a load of crap for parking your car.....
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.all the mountain bike riders enter from the old ansto enterence rd.they are going to stop them as well acording to the signs on the above post
jim
Yes bloody mountain bikers eroding the pristine wilderness that is Menai. ::) they are probably threatening and endangered species.
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I know that bit of road and like you say great for plug chops and getting things sorted.
Like a lot of people here I've been riding dirt bikes at Menai since the 70's and have been very lucky to have dodged any fines but still take the occassional risk.
In the last year or so I've been getting out there on a mountain bike, which I can ride to from home, still enjoying the bush and all the familiar tracks but at a much slower pace and without the fear of a copper waiting around the next bend to spoil my day. Not any more. Came across the new signs as I was ambling along a couple of weeks ago and haven't been back there since. Fortunately plenty of other places to go mountain biking in the area.
Its ANSTO's land, at first I thought It was for security reasons, but bush walking is still OK.
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Write to the local member and ask them what is the reason for the change.
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Better still grow a beard , chuck a tea towel on ya head , put on a backpack ,jump on ya mountain bike and go for ya koyte.[Quoite , coyt . I can,t spell it and can,t find it in dictionary , bummer]
Would be nice if you could film it for us. ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Thre are plans afoot for that land
Whatcha know Tim? - to be turned into suburbia?
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Better still grow a beard , chuck a tea towel on ya head
Then you are too busy kicking down doors and whipping people for drinking alchohol to have time for much else. Still the Sharia law home invaders will probably get a smaller fine than an Aussie would get doing plug chops at Menai.
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Its ANSTO's land, at first I thought It was for security reasons, but bush walking is still OK
Methinks it's ANSTO'S lawyers waving the big litigation scare at them. I rode there as far back as the early seventies and seem to think that it's been ilegal to ride there since at least the mid seventies but they've often turned a blind eye over it, depending on the police or local bodies philosophy at the time.
Whatcha know Tim? - to be turned into suburbia?
I was always led to believe that the area closest to the reactor was not suitable for housing development because for years it was used as a toxic waste dump. Anyone who rode there back in the seventies will recall that if you didn't wash your bike straight after getting home the alloy would corrode like all hell.
The distinctive smell of the place would stay in your clothes and on your bike if you didn't thoroughly clean the gunk off. I've never smelled anything that even comes close to that distinctive 'Menai pit' odor anywhere else. Back in the 90's a friend bought a basket case '74 Elsinore 250 that was covered in concrete like mud. A few days later I went over to his house to see the bike and as soon as he opened the garage door, that familiar Menai aroma wafted up my nostrils. I hadn't been to Menai in 20 years but it immediately came back to me. It appears that the last time the bike had been ridden was in the pit at Menai back in the mid seventies where it had broken a gearbox and taken home and thrown in a garden shed without a wash and forgotten for twenty years. Whatever it was that created that awful aroma must be strong stuff to last for twenty years.
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I was always led to believe that the area closest to the reactor was not suitable for housing development because for years it was used as a toxic waste dump.
Ideal for first home buyers, bit of top soil and fancy entrance gate with roll on lawn and a nice name like 'Menai Mirages'
you know the developers motto 'by the time the birth defects pop up the sales office is long gone'. ;D
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Won't need any streetlighting - should glow in the dark..
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I was always led to believe that the area closest to the reactor was not suitable for housing development because for years it was used as a toxic waste dump. Anyone who rode there back in the seventies will recall that if you didn't wash your bike straight after getting home the alloy would corrode like all hell.
The only dumping the reactor did was to bury items like gowns, gloves and implements which maybe extremely low level radioactive. These are buried behind the chain wire fence near the quarry.
The only other dumping was by the NSW Metropolitan Waste Management Authority which 'dammed' off several hundred acres natural gullies with earth works and then proceeded to fill them with every imaginable domestic and industrial waste a western society could produce and discard. (Of course the 'damming' was designed and guaranteed not to leak or leech any materials of any kind into the local watercourses or water tables. Several high profile pollies and several overpaid public servants sworn 'on their mother's grave' to this effect ::).
But of course those environmental vandals on motorcycles and mountain bikes will now be forced from the area with Draconian fines - that will save the planet ::).
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Jim gets a bit of a glow up at night, he's been going there for nearly 50 years ;D
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Jim gets a bit of a glow up at night, he's been going there for nearly 50 years ;D
I've been riding there for 43 years haven't noticed myself glowing in the dark or any bits falling off ::).
We use to skinny dip in the creek next to the Heathcote Road and drink from the creeks during summer (pre Camel Back days ;)).
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the aaec now ansto did dump stuff into mill creek(my dad installed the electrical in the reactor and then ran it for 20or so years)
on the vmx front chris dixon yamaha rider before steve gall used to work there but quit to ride yamahas mx
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We use to skinny dip in the creek next to the Heathcote Road and drink from the creeks during summer (pre Camel Back days ).
Same here, I always wondered why my dick glowed in the dark ;D.
It's a wonder we're still alive after drinking from the creek Graeme. A really eccentric mate of ours loved a cuppa tea so he stashed a billy, a couple of cups, a few teabags and a little Metho camp oven in the bush adjacent to the creek and would nearly always stop for a cuppa at some stage during our rides.
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That was because of friction Firko, nothing to do with radiation.
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mill creek is nowere near heathcote road.its at the back of menai and runs into the georges not the wonnie
jim
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That was because of friction Firko, nothing to do with radiation.
Ha Ha Ha ::) ::) 99 100 firco... :o :o
Poppy...
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Menai Yarn , FWIW
Bloody hell, that place brings back some memories !!
The bike mob EA and I hung around with at the Ponderosa, Caringbah in the Sixties used to go out to the Heathcote road for impromptu drags. But the run through the old Wonny road across the bridge up the other side, along the Menai straight past the old Servo, through the Menai Esses turn left and past the Bomb Factory onto the Heathcote road, that was the best part of it for me, anyone can go fast in a straight line !!
As a 19or 20 year old, I lived down the Wonny at the time and used to ride me T Bird to work, at the AAEC in the Reproduction Unit , now I know what you’re thinking but we were the Printing section !!
Used to meet a older fella on an A10 at the junction of the Prince Edward Park Road and the Menai Rd.on the Wonny hill and it was on for young and old till we got to the Reactor, first few times, he beat me until I worked out that if I beat him through the Menai Esses, I would then get to the Reactor first !!, It worked !! he just nodded to me at the Reactor gate and then I noticed this three legged logo thingy on the front of his puddin basin helmet, didn’t think much of it at the time !!
THEN
I got the T120, he didn’t even see which way I went, UNTIL, one morning , waiting for him, I heard this strange clattery, rackety noise coming down the Wonny towards me, It was him, but on a different bike, strange looking thing, single cylinder, all clip ons, hairpin valve springs and noise from a mega, lights and plates seemed to be just cobbled on, same number plate as the BSA, strange that !!
Anyway, across the old Wonny bridge we go, up the other side , ' phark, that thing goes round corners” I thought, then he gave it it’s head along the Menai straight , not a hope in hell of the Bonny catching it !!, he disappeared though the Menai Esses, I did catch a glimpse of it along the straights leading to the Reactor.
He waited for me at the Reactor gate, just nodded, and went on in , I did notice it was a Norton , said so on the tank, a humpy single seat, and , I know now, didn’t then, an OHC engine.
He went back to the Beesa next day and we just rode to work, reasonably sedately but having fun , we never spoke a word to each other, just nodded. This went on for months until he and I moved on. Never found out who he was.
When EA and I got married , we lived at Menai for quite a while, just opposite the old Menai Servo, brought our fist child , Kerry, home there, , Menai was all chook farms and gravel pits then ,conned the local grader driver to carve out a quarter mile oval underneath the power lines, not far from where Bro Jim lives now.
Aside from tearing around on our Dirt Track bikes , I used to shoot foxes up there with a 303, no-one took a blind bit of notice.
Our daughter, Kerry had her frist ride on a bike on the powerlines track, two weeks old , stuffed down the front of me jumper, on me Skids bike giggled her head off, didnt get a car licence till she was 32, rode bikes until she had 2 kids, maybe I started something !!
Menai , Bangor , Barden Ridge or whatever fancy name it’s called now is a very, very different place,
went through there last Sunday, to visit me Mam and Dad , the Wonny hill is a shadow of it’s former self, the Menai Esses are long gone, and there are far too many people, and too many memories!!
Foss
(http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab106/JAP454/Menai1970.jpg)
The only photo I have of the Powerline track at Menai, on one of me Ariels, early 1970
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2011
to the left of the above pic is bangor public school and danderbong st,accross the road is the pub and 1.2klm from my house
jim
454(see its a family race no)
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C'mon Foss, don't keep us all in suspenders, who was the other bloke with the 3 legged logo on his puddin.
Rolff Harris, Jake the Peg?
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Jap, forgive me for asking what is undoubtably stupid, but...
The three legged helmet logo - is that referring to the Isle Of Man ? and you are implying a Manx Norton?
Luke
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Naah , Slides,
All I knew, found out later , he was a Pom, doing techy stuff at the reactor, and he'd ridden in the Manx Grand Prix , was here for a couple of years, rode a few meetings here , then went back to the UK, learnt a lot about riding and tactics off that fella.
Foss.
Luke, yeah as I said , I found out much later, he'd ridden in the Manx, and It was an Inter or a Manx , probably the former
Never forgotten him or the rides !!
Foss
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The days of riding in the bush at Menai, even illegally, are numbered. As like everywhere else, proposals are well underway to swallow up the area by housing development.
http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/gandangaras-grand-vision-for-bushland/2229932.aspx
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The days of riding in the bush at Menai, even illegally, are numbered. As like everywhere else, proposals are well underway to swallow up the area by housing development.
http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/gandangaras-grand-vision-for-bushland/2229932.aspx
I have been amazed how long we have had access to the area. It was probably the best riding area close to Sydney.
The other story there is the 'white' aboriginal 'holier than thou' custodian of the natural environment selling off the land for an indecent profit ::). It was originally Federal land designated Military Reserve granted to the Aboriginals for an Aboriginal Cultural Resort or retreat, and because it had Aboriginal cravings, artifacts and was of aboriginal significance.
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thats plan b plan a already has houses on it all sold.new illawarra road is had its upgrade now all new and wide
jim
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I never saw Joel Roberts at Menai,even Decoster failed to give the place a try when the Belgian Suzuki team hit Sydney in the early 70's.
Bike tester,weekend racer,wheelie jockies,posers,wankers,dirt track heroes,trail plonkers and impressionable young blonde females who wanted to learn to ride a CT2's made up the bulk of the chientele........ ;D ;D .......... to read more drag your #9 vmx magazine off the book shelf and turn to page 78 and have a read of what the last three pages these vmxer's are posting on about ;D
cheers A
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I saw my first dead body at Menai. Back in the early seventies there was a reasonably simple 'motocross' track marked out adjacent to the quarry area. It was basically a football field sized circle with a couple of S bends and and three or four little jumps. This particular Saturday afternoon I'd been "racing" my Bully Lobito GP around the track and had stopped with a couple of mates adjacent to an old dumped FJ ute for a rest and to watch the other punters racing around. One of the 10 or so bikes circulating was a bloke on a fairly new SL350 Honda twin who thought he was pretty hot stuff, chucking big roosts out of corners, wheelying on the straights and generally looking as out of control as a punter could on an SL350. I recall telling my mate that the blokes front wheel landings off the jumps were going to bring him unstuck when all of a sudden he hit one of the foot high bumps sort of sideways, the landing resulting in a big high side getoff whith him coming to rest almost in front of us. We all laid shit shit on the bloke for being so stupid on such a stupid bike (I should talk) but he wasn't moving. After thirty seconds or so we tentatively ventured over to see how he was and saw that his head was twisted in an unnatural position.His eyes were wide open so we tried to talk to him but it soon became obvious that he was as dead as a dodo. As I said, it was the first dead'un I'd ever seen in my life and the look on his face will stay with me forever. Needless to say it put a damper on the days activities and it was a few weeks before we returned to the place.
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Along the same lines.
When they built INALA in Bris they went in circles and left the centre part bush.
Needless to say all the local kids learn,t to ride there.
Next thing the signs went up " No Vehicles ".
Mate of mine lived there and used to pinch the signs and hide them.
Then the RSL , or whatever, was built and a huge carpark was put in the very spot where the signs were. :o
Now the powers to be had to pull the " No Vehicles " signs ,which were magically reappearing , DOWN.
My mate had kept the lot and was putting them back UP in the same spot. ;)
Every one used to stand and watch them pull them down. ;D
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Mid to late seventies there was an acu santioned trial comp or demo held in one of the gullies there.
Think it might have been Mick Andrews or similar.
Anyone remember this?
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Mid to late seventies there was an acu santioned trial comp or demo held in one of the gullies there.
Think it might have been Mick Andrews or similar.
Anyone remember this?
Mick Andrews run a demo/school at Amaroo - I can't remember him been at Menai.
Sammy Miller rode at Menai in about '69 I think. If it was a comp or demo I can't remember.
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Mick Andrews did a Yamaha demo at Menai to coincide with the release of the TY range in 1974.
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Anyone remember Kev's Oasis? Kev's caravan was like a welcome mirage some days. Hot Dogs,drinks etc on a hot day. A few of us would side saddle/walk/ride the XR75's and SL's,YZ's from Padstow out to Menai on weekends. Great times and memories.I remember a couple of raids on the place by IT mounted state police and the odd visit by the Feds in P76's from memory. A lot of stolen cars were dumped out there and a couple of more entrepreneurial mates would take some special tools in the backpack to remove the odd nice car piece for sale later. once we down riding behind the reactor area and came across what looked like a dead forest. As we walked around the area someone layed an alpine star into one of the trees and it just fell over in a cloud of dust. Between us we kicked over and through a heapthese powder dry trees- and they were 6-8in across. A couple of old mates (Rex & Dave) and myself found a dead guy in a burnt out car one day. We had spotted a "guy" sitting in a car,off the track and a long way from the road, from a 100 yds or so and started calling out to him but got no answer. We started to move a bit closer and someone thought it would be a good idea to throw some rocks in his general direction. There he was sitting up in the front seat stone dead and slightly burnt. Of course we bolted back to the bikes and found some older guys to tell.
Without Menai, my life in the suburbs would have been a lot less exciting . We still need areas like this for young and old alike,its just a shame we rarely get them- or get to keep them.
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Dead guys - geeze :-\.
I squeeze past a car parked on a narrow track deep in the bush. As I squeezed past I looked into the back seat and there was a pair of knees with a bare bum thrashing up and down between the raised knees :o.
No one I recognised so I keep going ;D.
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Anyone remember Kev's Oasis? Kev's caravan was like a welcome mirage some days. Hot Dogs,drinks etc on a hot day. A few of us would side saddle/walk/ride the XR75's and SL's,YZ's from Padstow out to Menai on weekends. Great times and memories.I remember a couple of raids on the place by IT mounted state police and the odd visit by the Feds in P76's from memory. A lot of stolen cars were dumped out there and a couple of more entrepreneurial mates would take some special tools in the backpack to remove the odd nice car piece for sale later. once we down riding behind the reactor area and came across what looked like a dead forest. As we walked around the area someone layed an alpine star into one of the trees and it just fell over in a cloud of dust. Between us we kicked over and through a heapthese powder dry trees- and they were 6-8in across. A couple of old mates (Rex & Dave) and myself found a dead guy in a burnt out car one day. We had spotted a "guy" sitting in a car,off the track and a long way from the road, from a 100 yds or so and started calling out to him but got no answer. We started to move a bit closer and someone thought it would be a good idea to throw some rocks in his general direction. There he was sitting up in the front seat stone dead and slightly burnt. Of course we bolted back to the bikes and found some older guys to tell.
Without Menai, my life in the suburbs would have been a lot less exciting . We still need areas like this for young and old alike,its just a shame we rarely get them- or get to keep them.
Hang on 27 are u sure that wasn't the moofie "Stand By Me" :D :D :D
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Anyone remember Kev's Oasis?
Remember it well, he was always seemed to do a good business especially on hot days. He'd be parked on the left half way along the tar road at the bend near the opening to the oval track. He had a few basic spares, levers and stuff, as well from memory. I heard someone rode into the back his caravan and died.
We'd get dropped off by someones parents about 9am down near the fenced off waste dump area , a bit of fuel, couple of bucks in the pocket for a feed, and away we'd ride till we were picked up about 4pm. There was always some regular shit hot rider out on the track that someone would try to have a run with and provide some entertainment.
As Firko mentioned previously, that smell, especially when it was wet, was unique to Menai.
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Yer VMX sounds very familiar.Good memories. One day at Kev's a local hero was pulling wheelies up and down past the crowd at Kev's on a pretty new YZ400. He had a helmet, jeans and boots on and a flanno shirt tied around his waist, and on about the 10th pass he flipped it flat on his back. Man that had to hurt.
I sold that story to Steven King, Wombat!!
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This was in the local paper this week, I had to read it twice. Would be a dream come true. Sent off an email to the Gandangarra land council for some more details, not holding my breath tho'.
http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/west-menai-needs-a-manager/2386376.aspx
GANDANGARA Land Council is still searching for a "significant land conservation group" to help manage the 500-hectare reserve, chief executive Jack Johnson (pictured) said.
He said the reserve would be the "opposite" of a national park because it would be aimed at encouraging as many people as possible to use it.
"The best way for this land to be loved by all is to be used by as many as possible," Mr Johnson said.
In a statement sure to upset environmentalists already concerned about how the reserve will be managed, Mr Johnson said the land council was open to applications from the trail bike users who currently illegally enter the west Menai lands about a possible track in the reserve, as well as from mountain bike riders.
He said there would be fewer restrictions on how the reserve was used than were in place for proper national parks.
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seen that thursday as well i thought that would be good but what hoops would need to be jumped through to get this off the ground.there is a large anti bike feeling in the area by the locals
jim
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The minibike club near the tip has run successfully for a number of years, so if this Jack Johnson bloke is really on the side of bike riders and has a bit of weight within the land council then maybe there is a glimmer of hope, then again could be a red herring.
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Often go past that way & think to myself : All that land in the area ( including the adjoining land fill / tip site ,when full ) surely would be a good site for a local ride park / MX track ?
Far enough away from suburbia ? , properly managed, modest ride fees , sign a waiver ,abide by some common sense rules & away you go for the day.
How good would that be ;D
If only it could be that simple :-\
Regards ,
Steve
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This was in the local paper this week, I had to read it twice. Would be a dream come true. Sent off an email to the Gandangarra land council for some more details, not holding my breath tho'.
http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/west-menai-needs-a-manager/2386376.aspx
there must be some indigenous riders in the state- its a win win 8)
cheers a
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Not just in the state but pretty much a local. Meg is not only doing great things for womens mx but also indigenous riders
http://www.wollondillyadvertiser.com.au/news/local/sport/motorbike-racing/rutledge-earns-top-accolades/2383471.aspx
Cheers
Shaun