Cars pass very close to cyclists on the 80 km/h road. Photos: Martin Oswin.
Bermagui Community Forum (BCF) has launched a campaign to gather community support for Bega Valley Shire Council to improve safety for cyclists on Wallaga Lake Road.
In the past residents and visitors used the very popular Long Swamp walking and cycling track. Severe weather in July 2025 washed away a section of the southern end of the coastal track.
The track is on a Crown Land flora and fauna reserve, is protected by several environmental regulations and in a coastal erosion zone, so it cannot be repaired.
Currently residents and visitors cycling from the northern hamlets around Wallaga Lake to Bermagui have two options.
Some continue to use the Long Swamp track. People must push their bikes up and down onto the beach at either end of the missing track and then walk with their bikes along the sand. This option is only available to the fit and strong and those with lightweight bicycles. It is also dependent on tides.
The other option includes cycling along some 2.5 km of Wallaga Lake Road between the corner of Tilba Road and Scenic Drive. The tourist road has a 80 km/h speed limit, no dedicated cycle lane and is potholed. There are big ridges on some parts of the road’s edge.
Skilled and fit cyclists with mountain bikes have a third option. On the western side of Wallaga Lake Road there is a deeply rutted dirt track that is very muddy after rain.
Not all motorists know they are allowed to cross over the white line to make room for cyclists.
Wallaga Lake resident Doug Mein still uses the Long Swamp track twice a week. He has a lightweight bike that he can carry up and down the beach where the track has fallen away.
He avoids using Wallaga Lake Road because it is “too stressful”.
“It is fast traffic. Some drivers are reasonable, but some aren’t,” Mr Mein said. “It is very easy to imagine a cyclist being clipped by a car driving too closely.”
Another Wallaga Lake resident Diane Bray also continues to use Long Swamp track when weather and tides permit. She cycles into Bermagui two or three times a week to shop, meet friends, or swim in one of Bermagui’s pools.
Ms Bray said taking a bicycle down to the beach via the sand ramp that council had made and back up the other end where residents had put in rocks to act as crude steps was a “hard slog” and not an option for anyone with an expensive bike.
An experienced cyclist, she said cycling on the eastern side of Wallaga Lake Road into Bermagui required concentration.
“You can’t afford to be suddenly faced with a pothole when you have cars behind you and cars coming towards you on the other side of the road,” Ms Bray said. “I have to be very careful that I don’t veer out to avoid a pothole.”
She knows two women who have given up cycling into Bermagui. “They are just too scared.”
The most dangerous section is curved and the road is particularly narrow because there is a crash barrier.
“You are really relying on the cars to slow down because they can’t see for sure if there is any oncoming traffic so they can’t move out towards the other side of the road,” Ms Bray said. “Some are very close to you when they pass.”
Wallaga Lake resident and BCF member David Monro cycles into Bermagui daily to swim in the pools.
“Many people are no longer cycling into town because it is too scary along Wallaga Lake Road,” he said.
Mr Monro’s biggest worry is the many visitors to Bermagui at this time of the year who are unfamiliar with the area and the road.
“Without a safe cycling lane, it is a real concern for families and their children,” he said. “If there was a collision, I doubt a cyclist would survive.”
He said BCF wrote to council asking for repair to the road edges to make it safer for cyclists. Council said there was no funding available and it was not included in its works program.
BCF then asked council for help to estimate the cost of repairs so it could apply for grant funding or raise money from the community.
BCF launched the petition on change.org when council declined the request. BCF intends to present the petition at a future council meeting.
