It was the need to get to work safely that drove Tathra’s Andrew Johnson to begin building a bike track through the bush.
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Mr Johnson will on Tuesday receive a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his long standing commitment to the coastal community of Tathra.
The former police diver was the driving force behind the construction of Tathra’s now famous mountain bike trail in 2005.
“I really disliked riding on the road and Beach Street really worried me so I made a track from the country club to the old tip at Thompsons,” he said after hearing of his award.
Before long he had around 200 metres of the track built and by pure chance bumped into someone who would change the entire direction of his plan.
It’s set up to challenge the rider and keep them constantly thinking
- Andrew Johnson OAM
“Joe Caddy was cutting wood and asked me what I was doing,” he said.
“I told him I was building a track and he told me to follow the wallaby tracks.
“It gives the track a natural contour which is unique and makes it very flowy.”
Mr Johnson said the philosophy behind the construction of single tracks is that the bush returns to its natural state if the track is unused for a period of time.
“If you don’t use it it goes back to it’s natural state, so it’s designed to be sustainable,” he said.
“The idea is that every 20 metres the track changes direction so you can’t get too much speed up and to make it sustainable so any water flows off the track.
“Amazingly the wallabies did it naturally.
“It’s set up to challenge the rider and keep them constantly thinking.”
What began as a seven kilometre track now spans 51 kilometres of winding and weaving trails with something to suit any level of rider.
“One day Billy Caddy told me I should make a loop and that became called the ‘Poo Ponds’ after the sewerage works down near the country club,” Mr Johnson said with a laugh.
“It has taken tens of thousands of hours of work.
“if it was to be built commercially it would cost about a million dollars.”
The initial group grew to six after the first official race held through the “Poo Ponds” in 2007 and the track quickly stretched to cover 30 kilometres of bushland.
“In 2010 Mathew Nott asked if we would allow him to run an event to raise money for the solar panels at the sewerage works,” Mr Johnson said.
“That’s when I actually started designing it.”
It’s around this time the surfer turned mountain bike track designer met his brother in arms Evil Tom.
“I couldn’t have done it without Evil Tom,” he said.
Mr Johnson would spend his days marking the track, only to return to see the track already built.
It was three days before he met the person behind it all.
“I eventually actually met him and he said ‘if you keep marking it I’ll build it’,” Mr Johnson said with nostalgic eyes.
“Evil Tom would say ‘you don’t go to bed unless your tired’ and he didn’t and he still ride
“He built 1.8 kilometres of track in one week.
“Now that part of the track is named after him and it’s the hardest climb of the lot.”
The core group still ride every day, including Evil Tom.
“Our standard day is we go for a surf, then go and maintain the track and if it’s a good day we go for a ride but most of our time is spent raking.”
His love for riding also drove him to found the Tathra Mountain Bike Club in 2009 and work as co-organiser the initial Tathra Mountain Bike Enduro in 2011.
Mr Johnson was also involved in the formation of the Tathra Australian rules football team and soccer team after moving to the region from Sydney in 1979.
He has also been heavily involved in the Tathra Surf Life Saving Club as a member of the Emergency Call-Out Team for 15 years, the Tanja and Tathra Rural Fire Services and the Tathra Beach Country Club.
This won’t be Mr Johnson’s first medal as he received a Commendation for Brave Conduct in 2008 and a Bega Valley Shire Community Service Medallion in 2013.
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