Over 100 riders celebrated the completion of the Dry Forest Creek Bridge and its official opening by participating in this year's Tall Trestle Treadle on Sunday 13th October, 2019.
The completion of this bridge is a major milestone for the volunteer Tallangatta and Bonegilla Rail Trail Advisory Groups led by Parklands Albury Wodonga, and allowed them to use the Derbyshire to Bullioh section of the High Country Rail Trail for this year's ride. There is now a continuous 80km rail trail from Wodonga up to Shelley, Victoria's highest railway station.
Rail Trails Australia was thrilled that the volunteer rail trail groups and Parklands Albury Wodonga gave us the honour of cutting the ribbon, having been involved with them for 24 years to get to this stage.
Over 3700 volunteer hours has gone into this bridge and hard work secured $91,300 from a Victorian government "Pick my Project" grant. The federal government then contributed $65,000. Incredible value for money.
Not sitting on their laurels, work is underway to extend the rail trail from Shelley to Cudgwa and Corryong.
Check out the updated High Country Rail Trail description including lots of new photos of the spectacular scenery on the new sections.
There will be a more detailed report on the High Country Rail Trail developments in the summer issue of the members Rail Trail Connections magazine.
Tall Trestle Treadle
This is an annual event and highly recommended (disclaimer RTA volunteers paid their own way!). It has got better each year as the rail trail has improved. Riders were bussed up to Shelley Station to ride 45km back down to Tallangatta. Delicous morning tea at Koetong Station, lunch under the Dry Forest Creek bridge and afternoon tea at Tallangatta add to the day (all done by the volunteers!)
A full report of this wonderful event (provided by Kerry Love, Publicity Officer of the Tallangatta Rail Trail Advisroy Group) can be found here.