What kind of track would it have been anyway?

One of the strange features of the Drywound Appeal against the Lockyer Valley Regional Council's decision to refuse the application for a motocross facility at Adare was the number of proposed track designs that were brought up during the Appeal process - 10 in all, between mid-April and mid-December 2016.  Over one period of 170 days there was a new track layout every 19 days on average.

Colby Steer, the sole Director of Drywound, put quite a bit of emphasis on his expertise in motocross track design and construction at one point in the Appeal.

But why so many track designs?  That's a bit hard to understand.  Clearly there was a problem with getting the noise levels at nearby houses and the Lockyer National Park down to something vaguely acceptable.  But there was no consistent incremental improvement in the noise characteristics of the designs put forward, despite Colby Steer's self-proclaimed expertise as a track designer.

Was it "gaming" the Appeal process to confuse the other parties' experts, or to draw it out and make it more expensive for the Council and the Co-respondents? We will never know.  If it was this, it backfired because it was Colby Steer who ran out of money in the end (see here).

Did all this revision of track designs produce a better track for riders?  You be the judge.

This was the last track design - put to the Court in early December 2016

There are two significant features of this design.  One is the three dark green features with the black lines in their middles.  The other is the seven sections of the track outlined in red.

The dark green features are three earth bunds, 5m high and 12m wide at the base, with a 3m high noise barrier on top.  That makes a total barrier height of 8m, with three of these barriers having a total length of 575m.

These massive barriers were introduced about a year into the Appeal process when it became clear that getting noise levels down to anything like acceptable was going to be very difficult.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be a spectator watching the bikes on this track - or a parent of a young rider, trying to keep an anxious eye on the kid as he/she goes around the track.  From most positions, around half of the track would be obscured by the middle 8m high barrier.

Or as a rider you come belting around that tight left-hand corner at the end of the bund in the south-western part of the track - but you can't get a view around the end of the bund to see if anyone has come off on the track up ahead.  Adds a new element to extreme sport.

What about those red sections of track?

They are also about noise reduction.  As everyone knows, when bikes go fast they make more noise, and throttle use (opening it all the way out) also makes more noise.  Two characteristics of a good ride, but they're noisy.  Track in the red sections has been subjected to "acoustic treatments" by eliminating jumps and introducing obstacles designed to reduce speed and throttle use.  Nearly 20% (1/5) of the total track length has had this treatment.

Not exactly an exciting ride, and I doubt there's another adult track in South-east Queensland that has this extent of fun-spoiling "acoustic treatment".

One other important limitation that can't be seen in this track design is the restrictions that would have to be placed on changes to the track layout. This would clearly matter to riders - surveys done in Victoria indicate that regular modifications to track layout are one of the features that keeps riders coming back to a track.

However, because of the emphasis on getting noise at nearby dwellings and the National Park down to acceptable levels, and the recognition that track direction and the positions of jumps have an effect on noise levels, if the motocross facility had been permitted at Adare there would have had to be conditions requiring the track layout not to be modified.  Boring!!

Maybe if the operation hadn't been refused permission it would soon have gone broke once riders got bored with the track.  And that's without factoring in the impact of the recently opened Willowbank MX track in the Ispwich Motorsports Precinct.

What it's like to live with motocross

I've been compiling a file for the last few months of people's experiences living with motocross in many different places, not just in South East Queensland but all over Australia.  Here are some selected quotes gathered from personal interviews, messages people have sent to me, and other sources.

I hope you will read all of them and think about the lives of the many people behind these statements - and then think about the impact on the community at Adare and Vinegar Hill in the Lockyer Valley.

“The loss of peace and quiet and our rights to quiet enjoyment of our property.”

“The barrage of threats from the owners and users of the establishment, toward us living here in the valley ...”

“If you are anywhere outside the house and visible from the road you are likely to get abuse hurled at you by passing motocross traffic.”

“We had people in passing cars throwing empty stubbies at cattle in the paddock.  There were stubbies, plastic bottles, bongs and other rubbish in the crops near the road so that after it was ploughed it was impossible to walk barefoot to adjust the irrigation.  In one paddock beside the road I picked up about 12 bongs, made from plastic soft-drink bottles and bits of hose, in one day.”

“The health and wellbeing of the community where the stress and strain ... put strains on marriages and people’s health.”

“The valuations of our properties dropping with nobody wanting to buy as soon as they heard the noise from the place or heard there was a Mx Park down the road.”

“After five hours of the noise you’d gladly take a chainsaw over there and have a go at them.”

“You’re saying, ‘God, are the motorbikes going to start up?’ So even though they’re not there, you’re on edge because you don’t know... you think, ‘next ten minutes will tell’ ....  And like I say, it’s not [just] when the noise is going, you’re on edge all the time.”

“Friends and family do not want to come and visit anymore as we never know if we are going to be subjected to offensive noise  .... No social life anymore.”  

“We live 7.5km from Echo Valley, luckily it only operates 2-3 times per month as the noise is sometimes incredibly offensive”.

I've lived near there [at Vinegar Hill] previously for the peaceful natural landscape and wildlife. I would like to think this is still valued and protected.  I've experienced the fairly typical behaviours and attitudes of dirt bike enthusiasts and have come away discouraged and dismayed about the self centered uncaring nature of this "sport".

“We have first-hand experience of the excessive noise created from 200+ motocross bikes after camping at the Western Trailhead at Wyaralong Dam in July this year for a horse trail ride. The Western Trailhead campsite is less than two kilometres from the Queensland Moto Park and the noise created from the motocross park disturbed the amenity and in many ways ruined the experience of camping in an otherwise quiet and peaceful location.”

“Living near a motocross track destroys your life in every way - emotionally, financially, and your quality of life.  It causes enormous stress.  This is your home, you have nowhere else to go.”  

“When I travel to the family farm there is constant traffic on the road which at times when groups [going to or from Qld Moto Park] are travelling on convoy and don't know the road has been very dangerous at times. Also there are the usual testosterone filled P-platers that can't handle the narrow windy road and there have been several near misses.”

“We’ve had people in the farm sheds, even driving in at 3am, looking around.  There have been fences pushed over and bikes riding around our property.”

“The traffic on the road is horrific - thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies - they drive the way they ride.  Four times I came very close to an accident because of them.  The creek crossing was a major risk area.”

“Kids without licences and on unregistered bikes would ride for miles on back roads and across country, cutting through fences if necessary, to avoid the coppers on the road to the park.”

“I've experienced first hand the impact that persistent motocross noise and activities can have on a community. ... The noise was insistent and unsettling for all neighbours, particularly as many had young families or had moved to the area for its' lifestyle value - quiet and peaceful. The end result was a lengthy (years) legal battle between Council, the Motocross enthusiasts and the surrounding landholders. Three families sold their properties and left the homes where they had intended to settle, including my own, because of the noise and disrespect of the motocross users and lack of action from Council. It is not a small issue that makes a family give up the home they have built and the place their children have grown up in. I would strongly advise Council to reconsider the application for the Motocross track at Adare and to listen to the concern of the local residents.”.

“Stressful, depressing, suffering physical & mental abuse, tension is causing me personal relationship conflicts, lack of relaxation is health threatening, (hypertension) violation of my chosen lifestyle & of raping me of my rights to enjoy my home in my chosen location. I have lost my composure on numerous occasions screaming out obscenities above the OFFENSIVE disturbing MX moto bike NOISE pleading for the NOISE to STOP. I DO NOT LIKE THE WAY THIS NOISE TORTURE EFFECTS ME> live on acreage & do not want to have to lock myself away from this offensive noise with radio turned up full blast to disguise this invasive torturous din that envelopes me on my own property.”

Nice try. More work needed - and in another location, without all the people living nearby

The proposed motocross development at Adare could possibly, with a lot more work on the concept and the details, be a good idea.  But not at Adare.

It's just  in the wrong location, even if judged only on the number of people impacted.

The Qld Moto Park at Wyaralong, on the other hand, is an example of a properly located motocross facility - there are only about 120 people living within 4km.  At the Adare site, here are 900 people living within 4km of the proposed motocross property, including a lot of young people who don't need their nights and weekends blighted by motocross and traffic noise.




[1] Compiled using the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census Data for the localities closest in proximity to the proposed development.  Where census data is not available at the necessary scale for a locality, extrapolations have been made from an adjacent locality close to the proposed development.
[2] Note: 0-19 years includes those aged 0-14 years.
[3] Sources: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/quickstats and Google Earth imagery and overlays to locate houses and properties within specified radii of the properties.
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The $4 million QMP (Queensland Moto Park) facility between Beaudesert and Boonah was developed through the efforts of the SEQ Council of Mayors, the SEQ Councils, and the State Government.

The LVRC Mayor, Steve Jones,  as the Chair of the SEQ Council of Mayors Trail Bike Task Force, played a significant part over a number of years in the development of the project.  The QMP Wyaralong facility is a well-planned site following strict design and operating criteria.
 
Clearly, even judging only by the number of dwellings and residents adjacent to the site, the location of the proposed Adare development has not been well planned.

Why would anyone put this motocross track in a closely settled rural area?

Comment from a couple living in Adare - only 2.6km from the site of the proposed motocross track:

I can’t believe a council would put a motocross track in a rural residential area.  Rate payers have built their homes and settled into the local area never thinking Council would do this. Was Black Duck not enough!!!!!!! It seems to me they just want to move the problems and I guess that’s fine but without considering the local wildlife (we have many resident marsupials on our quiet 12 acres) and the residents who had faith in our local council that they would not approve things like this in these sorts of areas?

Is there nowhere else Motocross riders can enjoy their hobby?  How long have the applicants been paying rates?

It amounts to deception when you allow the sale of land to residents for the rates and then approve something like this.  Where will they rehouse the Koalas?

Is this a negative you want at next election?

Council has seen through these things in the past and supported the residents – I think this is another time for you to stand up and be counted.

Bad noise isn't just loudness

I think most of us are aware that loud noises can harm our hearing and make it hard to concentrate on our work, even maybe that they can make us cranky.

Did you ever stop to think that there are noises that really upset you that aren't all that loud?

Think about "doof doof" music playing at a party three streets away.  (Apologies if you like that form of music).  It isn't actually the loudness that is disturbing.  It's that it goes on and on and on.  It's that we have no control over it.  We can't sleep while it is there.  Feels like someone is doing this to us and doesn't care a damn how it affects us.  You can't get away from it - it sort of seeps through the walls, under the doors, vibrates through the windows.  It happens every weekend.  It's not a sound that "belongs" in our environment - different to other sounds we are used to. We're convinced that the people who are playing this music aren't likely to be people we'd want as friends.  And it's really low frequency - which is why it is so hard to block out and why it travels so well; high and mid-frequencies get attenuated by distance, structures, etc. - low frequencies are much less attenuated.

But it's not just the low fequencies that get to us - it's all those other factors I put into the story above that stimulate and stress our systems and put it into the category of "offensive noise".

What's really dangerous about this kind of sound is that it is responsible for 75-90% of our reactions to noise (the other 10-25% is reaction to loudness).  And our reactions are things like annoyance, anger, disappointment, dissatisfaction, withdrawal, powerlessness, depression, anxiety, distraction, agitation and exhaustion.  You've probably recognised already that these are feelings and attitudes that we generally try to avoid, either because of the impacts that they have on our physical and psychologicial systems or because of how they affect our relationships with other people.

In total, what these effects of this kind of noise amounts to is impaired quality of life.  You can see an overview report I've prepared on research on these non-noise impacts here.

Guess what. The noise assessment in the application for the motocross track at Adare doesn't mention these things.  Not any of them.  Neither does it mention the impact of sound on our sleep patterns or on our children (including on their long-term study and academic futures).  Are you a shift-worker?  It doen't mention what motocross sounds will do to your sleep between 4pm and 9pm four to six nights per week, or to your ability to drive safely to and from your shift work.

But, even if you aren't under 14 years old or a shift-worker, how do you feel about knowing that the long-term disruption to sleep patterns from a motocross track could lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or depression? There's a range of research data to back up all of these possibilities.

To come back to my original point - the problems with noise are not just about loudness.  What do the environmental protection laws set as standards for noise?  Yep, loudness.

So, if you are somewhere within say four kilometres of the Adare property where it is proposed to put the motocross track (tracks!! it's planned there will eventually be five of them) then don't assume because someone tells you that the noise won't be "loud" where you live that you won't be able to hear it, or that it won't have significant impacts on your quality of life.  Don't forget that even if it isn't loud, it will be six days per week, four to six nights per week until 9.00pm, and up to 52 weeks per year.

If you want a more detailed account of the potential health impacts of motocross noise you can download it here.  Please use it to let the Lockyer Valley Region Councillors know that noise has significant health impacts that aren't necessarily related to loudness, and these need to be taken into account in making a decision about the application.  Tell them too that the potential noise impacts of the proposed motocross facility at Adare are unacceptable.

Zoning is good - it protects our rights and gives us planning certainty - right?

click on the map to enlarge

Town planning is a good thing - if there's a legislated planning scheme in place, it's going to protect you from nasty surprises, like having someone decide they want to put a motocross track a couple of kilometres from you.  Well, not really.

The red circle on the zoning map is around the applicant's property.  The red lines are each 4km long, to provide a scale.  Rather a lot of properties within 4km, especially when you include housing subdivisions, not all of which are easy to see on the plan above.  Click on the zoning map to enlarge it or look for the small subdivisions in the Google Earth shot in the blog header. There are around 900 people living within 4km of the proposed motocross track property.

You'd have to wonder why any developer would bother lodging an application for a motocross track on a property less than 5km from a regional centre (Gatton) on land that is zoned Rural Uplands, Rural Agricultural and Rural General.  Not something that any of us in this part of the Lockyer Valley would have expected could ever happen.

You'd think that if you lived in or near a Rural Agricultural Zone you'd be safe from this kind of nonsene.  This is the best agricultural land in the Lockyer Valley, one of the top agricultural areas in the world.  Rural Uplands is another zone you'd expect to be pretty secure.  That's where the "special" natural areas are that aren't in some kind of protected status.  Have a look at the map below and see the way they lie on the margins of the two national parks - Lockyer National Park in the northern part of the Valley, and Glen Rock National Park in the south.

If you are in any of the Rural Agricultural or Rural Uplands zones in the zoning map on the right - this could happen to you as easily as it has happened to us.  Or maybe more easily, considering that our area is within 5km of the Gatton CBD and is a logical area for expansion of closer subdivision as the other available suitable land is taken up (there's very little remaining around the margins of Gatton).

Between Gatton and the proposed motocross land is ideal subdivision country - rolling hills, views north to the forested slopes in the Lockyer NP, cooling breezes coming down off the hills.  We've already got a reasonable network of roads and the sewage treatment plant is on this side of town, so the infrastructre costs of subdivision be lower.

Allowing this motocross facility to go ahead would alienate all the land in the area from subdivision - thus removing an important town planning option for the Council.

If you're at all worried that this could happen to you, or even that the current motocross track proposal could relocate to your area if it is refused here, or you just want to help us keep this proposal at bay - phone, write to, or email the Councillors who have been elected to represent your interests and tell them that a motocross facility at Adare, or in any of these zone types in the Lockyer Valley, just isn't on.

Here are their contact details: Mayor Steve Jones (sjones@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0408 981736); Councillor Peter Friend (pfriend@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0488 235 403); Councillor Janice Holstein (jholstein@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0417 303 582); Councillor Jim McDonald (jmcdonald@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0403 044 157); Councillor Kathy McLean (kmclean@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0427 656 630); Deputy Mayor Tanya Milligan (tmilligan@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0402 241 760); Councillor Derek Pingel (dpingel@lvrc.qld.gov.au, 0408 716 062).

The applicant's noise assessment - trust us, we're "professionals"

Just going through the application document preparing a summary overview of the problems with the proposed motocross "training facility" and had got to the Noise Assessment.

It's written mostly in technical jargon but occasionally they lapse into real English, particularly when they think they've got a statement to make that shows the motocross track in a good light.

I'd just got to the part where the Noise Assessment consultant is saying that the predicted noise levels are “considered conservative as noise sources adopted in the modelling are all of bikes assumed to be under acceleration but in real life the bikes will at times be off the throttle (i.e. braking as the bikes come into a corner), which would result in lower overall noise emissions.” 

Mmm ... maybe.

Then an email came in from a friend who is an "experienced dirt bike rider, having competed in motocross and ‘enduro’ at a national level.  I was also involved with Motorcycling Queensland in an organisational capacity for many years.  This experience gives me a greater understanding of the noise pollution generated by a facility like the MTF. "

His view is that " The style of riding is a significant contributor to the noise level generated i.e. using full throttle in an irregular manner, as compared to ‘smooth riding’, creates the largest impact.  This is an essential element of motocross riding."

Over the years I've come to the view that a basic principle in advertising and public relations is that if you want to sell a "product" which is actually pretty crappy, take its negative features and say that the exact opposite is true.  The same kind of thinking seems to have invaded professional fields, or are noise assessments being done by public relations consultants?

Nice idea - just in totally the WRONG PLACE

When I say "nice idea" I'm referring to the idea of a small, one MX track, training facility for anyone who wants to learn to ride an MX bike, or to improve their riding.  That's a good thing. BUT it's still incredibly noisy - not "ordinary" noisy. Very very noisy.  Have a look at the page above on what an MX bike is.

It still involves a lot of traffic to and from the track - in the case of this one, up to 150 vehicles coming and going each day it's in operation - on narrow country roads with unsealed shoulders and through local intersections not designed for this level of traffic.  Traffic after 9.00pm on four week nights and on an unspecified number of weekends.

You'd think that this would be the sort of activity that would be sited somewhere out in the countryside where there are big properties and few houses.  Not in this case.  We've calculated that there are about 900 people living within four kilometres of the property where the track is proposed to be constructed, and more than 300 of these are under 19 years old, so mostly likely to be in school or early childhood.
--> [1] --> [2]  Can you imaging getting young children to bed with an MX soundtrack going.  Or older children concentrating on their homework.  Or shiftworkers trying to get to sleep in the evening.  That's not MX track country - that's the outer edges of a country town.
In fact the property is less than five kilometres from the Gatton CBD.

It also involves the construction and maintenance of an MX track - if you don't have any experience of MX track maintenance I'd suggest going to the Qld Moto Park website and having a look for photos of work on their tracks.  Or better still, have a look at this video for a look at a variety of MX tracks and track construction.  An MX track is an ongoing earthworks project, requiring regular "dressing" of the surface so that it doesn't develop ruts and holes that are not only dangerous but prevent riders from reaching top speeds.  When an MX track is proposed to be put adjacent to one of the least developed creeks (Redbank Creek) where it flows out of the Lockyer National Park forests, then there's every likelihood that if large amounts of sediment and other pollution doesn't get into the creek on a regular basis, it surely will when we get one of the massive rainfall events that seem to be getting more and more common lately.

Redbank Creek already floods and there are businesses (employing more than 200 people) and housing estates, all within only a few kilometres downstream who already get affected by floods from Redbank Creek.  If sediment from this development raises the stream bed or otherwise stops floodwaters from getting away there will be much more severe flooding.

So, it's not an anti-bike thing.  Hell, I rode bikes for more than 20 years, probably about eight different bikes, everything from a step-through to trail bikes and high-speed touring bikes.

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[1] Sources: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/quickstats and Google Earth imagery and overlays to locate houses and properties within specified radii of the properties.

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[2] Compiled using the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census Data for the localities closest in proximity to the proposed development.  Where census data is not available at the necessary scale for a locality, extrapolations have been made from an adjacent locality close to the proposed development.