Places That Rock: Mountain Biking at Finch Hatton

If you’re from a southern state, chances are your mental image of Queensland’s mountain bike trails features a pocket in the south east, then tumbleweeds, then Cairns. The reality, however, is that like the rest of Australia small towns are starting to wise up to mountain biking’s tourism appeal. Enter Finch Hatton, west of Mackay a trail network (and definitely not a small bird in a bowler hat) that has been described by trail connoisseurs as in the “top three mainland trail networks in Australia”. That’s big kudos from a reformed Maydena park rat.

While it’s not a central destination—getting to the trails is a 55 minute drive from Mackay airport—it’s certainly one to remember. In its current state, the World Trail designed network has developed the trail network reaching 250m elevation, with views to expand the network during stage two, up to a massive 650m. There are currently 16 trails open; 7 green, 6 blue and 3 black trails that prioritise flow time and airtime. Stage two features a whopping 82km of flow and gravity trails, as well as a 40km wilderness trail from nearby town of Eungella to Finch Hatton.

But what does it ride like? If epic-scale flow and airtime are your thing, you’re going to have a hoot. A range of trails from green-rated family friendly trails to full-commitment gaps throughout the black diamond trails means that there are trails for everyone. The most advanced rider can have a blast on the easier trails by pumping up the airtime with optional lines and sends, while newer riders have scope to progress their air time on the blue and black terrain. While stage one is wholly flow, stage two will feature more gravity tech trails for the rock garden lovers among us.

To get to the top of the network, a family friendly climb track called G’Day G’Day offers a cruisy reverse-gradient climb around 15-20 minutes that’s been engineered to feel friendly regardless of your fitness. For those who don’t adhere to the ‘earn your turns’ mantra, there is a shuttle service departing the main trailhead with options for full and half day shuttles.

One thing to note about Finch Hatton is that the trails actually ride better when wet; useful for the monsoonal weather of central Queensland, though the trails have been built to be ridable year-round. Wet season usually starts around December and lasts through to March or April, so while you may be able to ride the trails through this time, the weather is unpredictable and largely wet, so heading up between April and September would be the ticket: temperatures start to climb again towards the end of spring!

Check out!

The Tasty Fig trail showcases the best of the network, a 1.1km blue rated flow trail with killer berms, rollers, and enough jump lines to keep the big hitters happy.

Cafes and local attractions at Finch Hatton

The town of Finch Hatton features a cafe, local shop and a pub that produced the best pie one of our riders had ever had!

Trail head features

The trail head at Finch Hatton has left nothing wanting, featuring a top-tier pump track, rest area and barbecue, bike racks, amenities, water fountain and bike wash.

Mobile phone reception

While we found that Telstra service was reasonably reliable, other carriers can have patchy reception in the area. It’s recommended that riders carry an EPIRB or PLB, especially as the trail network develops and diversifies with stage 2 of the trail network.

If you are interested in checking out more about Finch Hatton – go to their website here.

Ratings

Tech: 2/5
Fitness: 2/5
Cross Country: 3/5
Trail: 4.5/5
All mountain: 4/5
Downhill: 4/5
Jump: 4/5