Laden with mountain bikes, Brian Kilby's Toyota Landcruiser climbs a steep access road in the foothills of the Barrington Tops.
Leaving behind a vista of open paddocks, bisected by the Barrington River, the landscape morphs into an east coast rainforest hybrid.
"On those hot days the rainforest will be just magic," Brian tells Weekender.
"Holidaying locally is far better for the environment than flying overseas and look what we have to offer. It's world heritage."
The two terrains, side-by-side, lend themselves to a world-class bike park - a chance to offer trails for riders of all skill levels.
The opportunity didn't escape Brian and his wife Naomi, who opened Barrington Bike Park earlier this year.
The park is spread across about a third of the Kilby family's 330-acre property, a half-hour drive north of Gloucester. From top to bottom the park descends around 370 metres.
There are 12 trails on the property, ranging from "green" for beginners - which are in the more open areas - to "black" for experienced riders only - winding their way down through the heavily-forested hillside.
There are also "blue" intermediate trails which have the best of both worlds.
"We have a policy in place that when you turn up, you have to ride the intermediate trail first before you go up to the harder trails," Brian says.
"People see the gravity trails and think they aren't going to be riding too hard. It flogs you. Your legs are working hard, your concentration levels are at a peak."
The bike park is the couple's most recent venture - having owned and operated The Steps campground, nestled on the Barrington River, for more than a decade.
About two years ago, concerned their outdoor education business would be "locked out" of the Copeland Tops if there was another buyer, the Kilbys purchased an adjacent property known as Twist Tops Retreat - adding 300 acres to the size of their operation.
A run of drought, fires, floods and COVID spelled the end of their outdoor education program, along with the end of their canoeing and kayaking business.
"When we shut down outdoor ed we wondered what to do with that property," Brian says.
"So we looked at the finances and thought 'well, let's build a bike park'."
With the success of their smaller trails and children's pump track at campground, Brian says a bigger park seemed like the "natural progression".
He says their operation is the only bike park in the state directly connected to a campground.
To Naomi, this connection offers a unique holidaying package.
"The idea is that it's a whole weekend experience, whether you are with friends or the family," Naomi says.
"Arrive Friday night, set up camp, have a campfire and relax. Saturday is a full day mountain biking on the park, for those that are mountain bikers. For those that aren't, they might decide to explore the area. Head up to Gloucester Tops or Copeland, the easier trails on The Steps, or playing in the river.
"Then Sunday, a nice relaxed morning. Pack up camp and head home. For those that are really keen they can go mountain biking all day on the Sunday too."
Since their soft opening on August 20, the trails have received praise from a number of biking enthusiasts and professionals - including Australian national and Oceania downhill champion Ellie Smith.
The Kilbys' care for landscape underpins the entire project and is demonstrated in the park's use of natural features and care to make as little impact on the environment as possible.
The park was designed and created by Mat Rowland from East Coast Mountain Trails, who also made the trails at Dungog Common.
"Mat didn't want to bring anything in, he just wanted to keep it natural which makes for a much nicer experience," Brian says.
"We had to bring stuff in for bridges and there is one drop-off that is made from timber, but that's about it.
"We ran with Mat because he is local and the work he did at Dungog is exceptional. We thought 'wow, let's get him on board'."
Rocks from the area have been used to form up the trail edges and natural features, such as rock shelves, have been incorporated seamlessly into the design.
Rowland says this was no accident, rather a product of extra effort and attention to detail.
"When we were mapping the tracks out we were looking for big rock slabs and bigger features," he says.
"There is a lot of planning and thought goes into what line you are going to choose. Just walking the area and working out where you can get the bike and what rocks you can move and how it's going to be safe and sustainable.
"There was lot winching rocks and moving dead trees, building rock walls and bucketing dirt because we couldn't get machines in."
The colour-coded trails are divided between technical [tech] and flow categories. With the former not being quite as fast but requiring a great deal of technical skill.
Rowland says the black tech trails on the property, like his favourite Dead Mans Creek, are "up there" with some of the best in Australia.
"They are old school, techy, rough, challenging. You get to the bottom and it's such a good feeling," he says.
"To ride something like that you have to go to Tasmania really, there's not much else around that compares."
A lack of challenging trails in the area is a big reason for Rowland, a former carpenter and electrician, starting his business in 2019.
"I travelled to Canada and New Zealand and Tasmania and just seeing the quality of trails they had it was pretty frustrating coming home," he says.
"It was almost depressing coming home because you think 'I want to go back and ride these amazing trails'."
So after seeing the Kilby's property, there was no way Rowland was passing up the opportunity to build their trails.
"I was like 'I've gotta do this job. It's pretty amazing'," he says.
"It's awesome terrain and just the rainforest, you don't really see that around Newcastle.
"I don't think we could have done anything better. I'm pretty impressed with how everything turned out."
Two shuttles operate on Barrington Bike Park. One runs riders to the top trail head, from which point a small climbing trail allows access to two blue flows and the two black techs. The other goes to the mid point, where there are options to take a green flow, blue flow or one of two blue techs.
Throughout the morning, shuttles run from a pick-up point 100 metres away from the campground.
The campground itself accommodates about 150 people which, Brian says, is about half of the maximum capacity in an effort to make a better camping experience.
"We've done lots of river restoration work after all the floods. Weed removal and planting of natives," he says.
"We are rocking up the riverbanks to get more stability because of all the damage from the pre-existing clearing that was done.
"Sustainability is a really big focus for us."
Located on a set of rapids that share the campground's name, the Kilbys have recently had a river sled made for use on their 1.8 kilometres of river frontage.
"There is a grade two and small grade two plus rapid people can river sled on," Brian says.
"It stops people bringing their crappy Kmart stuff. Those things would see a rock and sink.
"On Saturday morning we used to get all the packing in the bin and on Sunday morning we would get all the toys in the bin."
In the next 18 months, the Kilbys aim to have built a new admin building for food, retail and electronic check-ins.
They are also looking to have more trails built across the property within five years, with some smaller tracks for children as young as three.
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