Noble Park Velodrome to be Demolished (Melbourne)

[KimOfTheHills]

Hi pedal mafias,

Long time lurker of the forums, first time poster.

I just wanted to raise awareness that my local velodrome in Noble Park at Parkfield Reserve in the south east suburbs of Melbourne is up on the chopping block. I come to this velodrome every so often to practice cycling off of the dangerous roads in the area, however the council think the cycling track is "disused" and wants to tear it down to add another soccer pitch at the detriment of cycling and cyclists.

Dandenong council has a set aside $100k+ budget to remove the velodrome!!! And they have no budget set aside to replace it anywhere in the area!

What's even more bizzare is the council endorsed a cycling policy in May 2017 called the '2017-2024 Cycling Strategy" to promote recreational cycling and recreational cycling as a sport. They intend to build and maintain cycling infrastructure and facilities to be inline with their strategy they are trying to promote. But with the release of these plans to bulldoze the velodrome, they're legally contradicting their policies they've set out to achieve just a year ago!

Current community consultation
https://oursay.org/futureofparks/parkfi ... aster-plan

Detailed drawing/plans of Parkfield's masterplan
http://www.greaterdandenong.com/documen ... -pdf-1-8mb

Closed community consultation (~6 months ago)
https://oursay.org/futureofparks/future ... play/forum

Council's plans for the park
http://www.greaterdandenong.com/documen ... ld-reserve

Council's endorsed 2017 cycling policy
http://www.greaterdandenong.com/documen ... g-strategy

Historic mentions of the velodrome
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/resu ... cling+club

Ideally the council should be maintaining this facility for all cyclists who use the cycling track. Either resurface it, or if they don't think the track is being widely used and soccer can make better use of the park, rebuild it elsewhere for the cyclists who desperately want to ride on a velodrome rather than on multi used paths or worse, on roads with motor traffic.

If you guys agree please give a support on the consultation pages or even better, do a few loops to show some support (Dunblane Rd, Noble Park - off Heatherton Rd).

Kim

EDIT: updated broken links

[RobertL]

Well, according to Strava only 24 people have ever ridden it: https://www.strava.com/segments/2256706

But it looks like a good facility so it should probably be preserved and publicised and used more.

[KimOfTheHills]

Well, according to Strava only 24 people have ever ridden it:

As someone who rides here, it is sad to see how poorly trafficked it is. It's located off the beaten track and locals a few blocks away wouldn't even know such a facility existed. It once was highly used by the Noble Park Cycling Club since the 1950s right up until the mid 2000s.

I've spoken to a few locals who do come here and they agree that the council should resurface the track to make it more usable. However my main concern is even with resurfacing done to it, it's location is just so unknown that it doesn't warrant the cost to upgrade it.

And with their 2017-2024 cycling strategy/policy to promote recreational cycling as a sporting activity, destruction of the velodrome and non replacement of it, just for the gain of another sport (soccer in this case), is not very fair for cyclists and all potential cyclists in the future. With the velodrome built in a location more 'discoverable', I have no doubt it will get numbers in the high hundreds on Strava.

I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here btw!

[macca33]

Unfortunately, so many of those sporting ground velodromes have been lost over the years. No real cycling club nearby would also factor into it.

Best of luck.

[ironhanglider]

I was unaware that the velodrome even existed. However it is well and truly within the home range of the Southern Masters and Eastern Vets, neither of whom do track riding as far as I can tell. Southern Masters do run motor-pace training in Chelsea during summer, but this would be easier to get to for many.

Perhaps making contact with them and alerting them to the presence of the track and its availability to be used for training sessions etc might spark some interest. Of course it would be especially useful if there was some sort of local business that could make money from them, like a coffee cart, cafe, etc. If the local cricket/soccer club had a kiosk open at the same time as a cycling club event they might get some extra revenue which would help the cause.

I might see if I can get down there and try it out myself.

Cheers,

Cameron

[KimOfTheHills]

I discovered yesterday at a park in Dandenong next to the law courts, City of Greater Dandenong council actually commemorated Maurie Kirby, which the velodrome at Parkfield Reserve is named after.









This will be a stain on Maurie Kirby's memory if the velodrome does get removed by the same council.

[KimOfTheHills]

We have a facebook page for anyone that wants to keep updated on the status of the Noble Park velodrome.

http://www.facebook.com/NobleParkVelodrome

http://nobleparkdandenong.cc/

We've also reformed the old Noble Park-Dandenong Cycling Club that used to exist here until recently. We're taking memberships and have a website up. You can read more on what myself and others have discovered about the history behind the club and velodrome named after Maurice Kirby, a well known sports broadcaster in the 1950s.