A plan to construct a new cross-country mountain bike trail across the Victorian High Country has been officially launched in Melbourne.

The trail stretches 40 kilometres across the Mt Buller and Mt Stirling Resorts, Mansfield State Forest and the Mt Russell Education Area and is specifically designed for mountain biking.

The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, expressed his pleasure at the new tourist attraction, acknowledging the hard work undertaken to get the project to this stage.

“This project was first identified in 2010 under the Australia’s National Landscapes program, and received $125,000 of Commonwealth funding through the Strategic Tourism Investment Grants,” Minister Ferguson said.

“An impressive amount of hard work has gone into this project, including from the Mt Buller and Mt Sterling Resort Management which matched the funding offered by the Commonwealth.

“When complete, this cross-country descent will provide bikers with magnificent views of this beautiful area, as well as challenging riders.”

Minister Ferguson congratulated the project team on a successful launch and wished them well in their bid to gain international ‘EPIC’ status for the trail, a distinction given to the best mountain bike trails around the world by the International Mountain Bicycling Association.

The Australia’s National Landscapes program is a partnership between Parks Australia and Tourism Australia that aims to achieve conservation, social and economic outcomes. The Australian Alps is one of 13 National Landscapes sharing in $1 million of funding through the Strategic Tourism Investment Grants.