Cr Peter Hulin stands among excavators after the old BMX track was bulldozed yesterday.
AFTER more than a decade as a popular Warrnambool sports venue, the Queens Road BMX track has been flattened.
Humps and curves built with hundreds of hours of voluntary labour disappeared before the blade of an excavator this week.
The area will revert back to passive recreation land as a floodplain of the nearby Merri River.
A new BMX track at Jetty Flat Reserve is nearing completion to be ready for inaugural races on November 4.
While some local children and race enthusiasts are sad to see the old track disappear, others have welcomed the move.
Warrnambool City council recreation and youth co-ordinator Kim White said closure of the Queens Road track, built by the BMX club in 1981, would mark the end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter for BMX racing in Warrnambool.
“Club members and a number of local businesses have contributed countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of in-kind labour, materials and equipment to make this project possible,” she said.
“A number of members have taken time off work to volunteer on the construction project and it is a fantastic example of community achievement which wouldn’t be possible without the expertise and leadership of the club.”
City councillor Peter Hulin, who lives near the Queens Road site, said he had been calling for about 15 years for the track to be removed.
“It’s sad for those who put so much time and effort into building something that should never have been long term,” he said.
“By law you can’t put filling on a floodplain.
“The track acted like a wall and sometimes floodwater waves would push back to Mortlake Road. It was quite a dangerous situation affecting properties on Mortlake Road and Dooley Street.
“Thankfully the club has security of tenure for its new site.”
However, 10-year-old Tyler Meddings told The Standard he wasn’t happy with bulldozing of the old track. “Now where do I ride my bike or drive my RC buggy,” he said.