Council staff take great pride in providing high quality parks and reserves for the community to enjoy – we understand how important these natural spaces are for physical and mental wellbeing.
I’ts unfortunate that we are still seeing unauthorised dirt jumps being constructed at some parks and reserves across the City.
While the creation of dirt jumps may seem like harmless fun, they have been associated with reported cases of serious injury. We have an obligation to ensure the safety of our community and must remove any jumps when built on Council and crown land.
The construction of dirt jumps not only can cause an increase in noise and rubbish for neighbouring houses, but it disrupts the natural environment, causes soil erosion and can have an impact on native plants and animals. Construction can also have an impact on culturally sensitive land – there are known aboriginal artifacts at some of the locations where illegal jumps have been constructed.
Although dirt jumps are easy to repair, native vegetation takes years, if not decades, to recover. That’s why it’s important to stay on maintained paths. Not only are they safe, but staying on these paths reduces the movement of pest animals like foxes who predate on native animals.
Everyone has a part to play in looking after our parks, reserves and amazing native wildlife. We ask that everyone, including young people, remain on paths and avoid using informal tracks.
