Derby

Derby sits in the rolling hill country of north-east Tasmania on Pyemmairrener country, around 100 kilometres north-east of Launceston. The town was founded in 1876 after a major tin discovery and grew rapidly through the late 19th century into one of the most important tin mining towns in the southern hemisphere. The Briseis tin mine, the largest in the area, finally closed in 1948 after a major dam burst flood in 1929 killed 14 people and effectively ended large-scale operations. Derby slowly emptied out and by the early 2000s was a near-ghost town with fewer than 100 residents.

The transformation began in 2015 when the Dorset Council and Mountain Bike Australia opened the first trails of what became the Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails network. The trails were designed and built by World Trail, an Australian company, and used the natural rocky and forested terrain of the surrounding hills to create more than 125 kilometres of purpose-built singletrack across multiple difficulty grades. The system has hosted multiple rounds of the Enduro World Series and is now widely regarded as one of the top three mountain biking destinations in the world, alongside Whistler in Canada and Finale Ligure in Italy.

The town has rebuilt itself entirely around mountain biking. The main street now contains multiple bike rental and repair shops, three coffee shops, two cafe-restaurants serving genuinely good food, a brewery (the Vault Brewing Co), and a range of accommodation from hostels through cottages to the upscale Floating Sauna Lake Derby (a wood-fired sauna on a pontoon in the old tin mine reservoir, accessible only by row boat).

The trails range from family-friendly green-graded loops to expert double-black flow tracks. The Blue Tier trail descends 1,200 metres from the high country plateau to the valley floor over 19 kilometres and is widely considered one of the best descents in the world. Shuttle services run from Derby to the top of multiple trail starts.

Derby is a year-round destination but the trails are best from October to May. Winter is cold and wet and many of the higher trails are closed. The Blue Derby Pods Ride, a guided 3 day all-inclusive experience with luxury pod accommodation, has won multiple international tourism awards and is the standard high-end option for visitors who want the trails without the planning.