The Centenary Trail multi-day bike ride

Canberra is an ideal bike packing or bike touring destination. It’s an incredibly bike friendly city and worth a visit for the many bike paths and mountain bike parks on offer, as well as the Canberra Centenary Trail.

The Centenary trail is a 145km trail that you can walk or cycle around the outskirts and through parts of the City of Canberra. The Australian Capital Territory and this bike ride are located within Ngunnawal Country. The trail skirts the city in parts, going through native forests, nature reserves and bushland, and follows bike paths in urban areas where there are plenty of opportunities for cafe’s and accommodation in hotels and motels along the way.

Ride facts:

Total distance	145km
Number of days	2-3 days
Type of trail	Off-road, mostly dirt and some bike paths
Difficulty level	Moderate
Highlights	Views over the city, wildlife, Parliament House, history, Red rocks gorge

Planning and essential information:

Accommodation: You can start and finish this route anywhere that you can park your car for a few days. Our first step in planning was deciding where we wanted to stay. There are options for camping along the route but as we were travelling with kids we opted for hotel accommodation. We wanted to do approximately 50km per day so our start and finish point and accommodation needed to be roughly 50km apart.

There’s very useful information and maps of the Centenary Trail at www.parks.act.gov.au/find-a-park/canberra-centenary-trail

Water and supplies: The trail passes through various suburbs and town centres where you can fill up your water bottles and grab a bite to eat or stock up on snacks.

Navigation: The trail is marked with Centenary Trail signs however it is recommended to have maps, GPS device or navigation app.

Essential equipment: This ride can be done on a gravel or mountain bike. As with all rides, a helmet, basic bike repair and first aid kit are essential.

When to go: Canberra experiences four distinct seasons and can get quite cold in winter and hot in Summer. Spring and Autumn are the best seasons for this trail.

How we did The Centenary Trail

We completed the Centenary Trail as a 3 day ride but this could be made longer or shorter depending on your ability and fitness level. Covering approximately 50km a day was perfect for our 10 and 12 year old’s ability at the time.

Day 1 Canberra Centenary Trail (45km)

Travelling from Sydney we parked north of Canberra city near the Australia War Memorial and Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve. From here we cycled north, away from the city and followed the trail through mostly rural areas, including Mount Ainslie Nature reserve, Mount Majura Nature Reserve, Goorooyaroo Nature Reserve and Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary, mostly on fire trails and dirt paths. The options for water and supplies were limited most of the day so we enjoyed a picnic lunch and made sure we had enough water with us. If needed we could have taken a short detour into the suburb of Bonner where there are cafes and a supermarket.

We passed through the Northern Border Campground which looked like a great place to camp. There were some great sections of single track along this part of the trail. Along this northern part of the route there are sections which follow the ACT border and you can see ACT border markers. The trail also passes the historic One Tree Hill which was used by early surveyors. You can walk to the top but unfortunately bikes are not allowed. There are great views over Canberra in this area. We also saw many native animals on our first day including kangaroos, echidnas and lizards. At the end of the day we passed through Hall, one of the few pre-federation villages remaining in the ACT. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time here but we were keen to reach our hotel.

The first night was spent in a motel in Nicholls (Leumeah Lodge). It was basic but all we needed with food options nearby.

Day 2 Canberra Centenary Trail (57km)

We started the day with lovely breakfast at a café at Lake Ginninderra. We then followed the trail to the Australian Institute of Sport, along fire trails in the Black Mountain Nature Reserve and on to the National Arboretum where we stopped for lunch. There was some pretty good single track near here which we all enjoyed. We then passed Stromlo Forest Park and Mount Arawang before arriving at the Murrumbidgee River. A narrow path follows the river along the top of stunning Red Rocks gorge. This part of the trail has some more challenging sections and there were a few nervous moments watching the kids navigate some of these with steep drop offs down to the gorge. It didn’t help that we were all tired by this point and the hotel was a very welcome sight!

We spent the second night of our bike adventure in Greenway which is a suburb in South East Canberra. We stayed at the Alpha Hotel which was great and had dinner at the nearby Lawn Bowls club.

Day 3 Canberra Centenary Trail (35km)

Day 3 was our shortest day with more bike paths and city riding. The trail passed through the suburbs of Tuggeranong and Issacs Ridge then through Mount Mugga Mugga Nature Reserve containing nationally endangered Box -Gum woodland. We then passed through Red Hill Nature Reserve and cycled into the centre of Canberra. It was definitely interesting to ride along the raised track at the back of the grand homes along Mugga Way, peeking into their back yards, then ending up at Parliament House. We cycled across the lake and into the city for lunch. From here it was only a short ride back to the car.