Munda Biddi Trail Ride 2006

Trail Access

There are a number of organisations that provide transportation to and from the Munda Biddi Trail. But why bother?

The Northern terminus at Mundaring is only a 2h ride from Perth airport (about 30km). Ok, it's about a 300m climb up the Perth Hills from Midland, but if you can't handle this, you'd better look for a different holiday destination.
The (currently) Southern end at Collie is about 60km from Bunbury, from where there are two daily trains to Perth. The first half of the ride from Collie to Bunbury is pretty hilly (a total climb of about 200m, before a more than 300m steep descent), and the flat bit tends to have strong headwinds, so allow plenty of time (we took just over 2.5 hours in the December mid-day sun,but that was a serious effort, motivated by having pre-paid for the train and not knowing whether the next one would have free seats).

Note that the Australind train between Perth and Bunbury requires pre-booking for bicycles. Bookings can be made at tourist offices (e.g. in Collie).

There is also a coach from Collie that connects to the Perth train at Brunswick Junction (one stop past Bunbury) but that requires more advanced booking (they wouldn't take the bikes once the bus left the terminus, which is a few hours before Collie). Also, the claim is that the Australind only accepts bicycles at the termini (Perth and Bunbury), so we aren't sure whether that would have worked anyway. Having seen some of the stations we understand the reason, most had platforms that were about 3m long, enough to access the train through a specific door (and they wouldn't want that to be blocked by bikes). That didn't seem to be a problem with Brunswick Junction, though. In any case, ask to be sure.

Transportation will be less trivial once the other sections of the track open. We suspect that for the (overdue) middle section, the way to go is to get transported to the Southern end and (if stopping at Collie) take the train back to Perth from Bunbury. For the Southern section (still a few years away) flying to Albany would probably be a practical option.

We'll be doing the other bits when they open, so stay tuned!

Return to main page of Munda Biddi Trail Ride