Upgrades on the O’Keefe trail

A new off-road path joins the O’Keefe trail at Longlea Lane.

For some years past, the trail has meandered partly through private land at Arakoon Water Park. Through our good working relationship with the City of Greater Bendigo Council, this part of the trail is currently being realigned back onto the original railway alignment. Works are in progress, with the installation of a culvert pipe for drainage and reforming/gravelling of the trail. Arakoon will soon be ‘officially’ bypassed by the trail.

The trail from Longlea Lane to the Axe Creek swing bridge has been regraded, and we are hoping for a new gravel surface to be installed soon.

Also, from our discussions with council, the crossing over Longlea Lane has been realigned. No need to ride down a 100 kph road. You can now zip straight across (carefully!) and ride down a new off-road path to rejoin the trail. Final path surfacing of this new section is expected to be completed soon.

The City of Greater Bendigo has engaged a landscape architect to redesign the approaches to the Axe Creek bridge, to improve the safe access onto the swing bridge, although the bridge itself will stay. Gaining funding/grants for this work will now be the next step to allow this upgrade to begin.

The council has also been assessing the missing bridges on the trail, between Bendigo and Axedale, and the outcomes of this should determine how best to deal with their replacement. We await the outcome of this study, and then possible funding options to address the recommendations.