Education of riders continues in Watagan forests
From the Winter 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Forests NSW staff working in the Hunter and Central Coast regions are confident that efforts to educate off-road motorcycle riders are making ground.
Maitland-based operations manager, Mike Pryjma, said that joint initiatives by Forests NSW, National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Police Force are set to continue, following the success of several partnership projects over the past two years.
“We recently renewed our sponsorship of an off-road motorbike to enable the police to get into the forests and do patrols,” Mike said. “The Easter holidays are traditionally one of our busiest recreational periods. This year we staged a motorcycle blitz, with police targeting unregistered bikes and unlicensed riders that resulted in 21 infringements and 16 other charges.”
Mike said that despite these figures appearing to be high, on the ground it seems that the message is getting through with more bikes being registered and legally ridden than during past blitzes.
While success in the forest is welcomed, strategies are being developed to ensure that retailers of off-road motorbikes are giving correct information to their customers when they make a purchase.“Roads in State forests are public roads. All of the normal road rules apply, including a requirement of riders to be licensed and bikes to be registered and insured,” Mike said.
Communications, Maitland
