The Hit the Turps project started from a vision to create a trail that would help riders progress their jumping skills and confidence whilst providing a solution for the council with a problem fire trail that was becoming a large erosion problem.

It started with walking the fire trail with members of the Sutherland Shire Council to sell the vision and provide certainty, that along with riders receiving a great new addition to the network, we could assist in repairing a problem area. All stakeholders were in agreement that it was a great solution and we could go ahead with the project. This then began the next problem of raising the funds to get it underway!

A crowd sourcing campaign was started through Go Fund Me which raised $6,500.00. The council then matched this amount by providing machinery and staff to assist with moving over 1000 tonnes of material that was provided free of charge by the company doing the excavation of the “Brick pit” site in Kirrawee.

The bulk of the repair works were done by a council approved contractor who assisted in filling/grading the trail to its original condition and then bulking out the rough piles to be shaped into jumps with the volunteer crew. All the jumps were hand finished by a team of approximately 6 people over a few weeks.

The project took approximately 2 months from the time the first dirt was moved, to the shaping of the last of 9 jumps on the trail. “Hit the Turps” has received thousands of laps since its inception with only 1 minor rebuild since. The volunteer crew will be giving it a freshen up in the next few months so stay tuned!