Bicycle Victoria - History

History

The organisation was established in 1975 as the Bicycle Institute of Victoria. It became an incorporated association in 1986 with a new constitution passed on 7 November 2005 and incorporation and formal renaming of the organisation to Bicycle Victoria occurring on 5 December 2005.

The formation of the Bicycle Institute of Victoria in 1974 was instigated by Brian Dixon MP, Victorian State Government Minister for Youth, Sport and Recreation. Dixon bought together a group of bicycle advocates including Keith Dunstan to help form the BIV. Dunstan went on to become the founding president of the Bicycle Institute of Victoria. Rupert Hamers Government also formed the State Bicycle Committee (SBC) which was originally within the Ministry of Transport. Under Dixon, the SBC reported directly to the Minister. Its having to report through VicRoads only occurred circa 1990.

When Bicycle Victoria was founded in 1975 the renaissance of cycling in Australia was gathering momentum. Bikes were becoming popular again for recreation and cyclists were becoming accepted on the road. Founding president, Keith Dunstan, records in his memoir Confessions of a Bicycle Nut: “By the late 70s I was called a ‘—–– idiot’ only once a month instead of every day”.

The first edition of the newsletter Pedal Power (Apr 1976) announced that the fledgling Bicycle Institute of Victoria aimed to cater “for the need of the majority of cyclists who urgently need safe, convenient and pleasant places to ride”. The chief campaigners were Dunstan and Alan Parker, who immediately began pressuring State and local government on everything from lanes on roads to citywide planning.

In 1978 the Victorian government approved a $1.6 million, five-year Geelong Bikeplan as a test case for bike planning in Victoria. The plan proposed programs of education, enforcement and encouragement as well as engineering for cycling. Ted Wilson of the Geelong police was key in the plan’s implementation. He worked on getting cyclists to comply with the road rules and encouraged police to look out for cyclists on the road. By way of education and encouragement, he taught the newly developed Bike Ed program in schools around Victoria, a program he loves and is still involved with.

Wilson also suggested re-establishing Police Bicycle Patrols in Victoria. The idea was written into the Melbourne Bikeplan in the late 70s and subsequent plans developed for centres around Victoria but didn’t come to fruition until 1990. Once again Geelong was the site for the trial and Wilson was charged with training police in bike skills. Now all police areas across Victoria are equipped to run Bicycle Patrols when they fit the bill.

With conditions for cyclists steadily improving, cycling clubs began popping up all over Victoria. One of the oldest and largest was the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club (MBTC). Founded in 1973 as "Action Unlimited" and changing to MBTC in about 1976, it soon became affiliated with Bicycle Victoria. One of the early members of MBTC was Ian Christie, who went on to run the renowned shop Christie Cycles for 22 years.

Christie sees the 80s as the period when cycling really began to take off. He credits this to cycling gaining a name as a great health pursuit at this time and the newly invented mountain bike. It wasn’t an innovation he had much faith in at the time. As a project manager for Bicycle Industries Australia, Christie was often asked about current trends in the cycling industry. He laughs, “I’m still making forecasts but I remind people that I was the one who said mountain bikes would never take off.”

Past president of Bicycle Victoria Charlie Farren concurs that the 80s saw a tremendous boost in recreational cycling in the state. Her involvement with the organisation coincided with the development of the Great Victorian Bike Ride from the 1984 first ride when over 2000 people rode from Wodonga to Melbourne.

That first Great Ride was meant to be a one-off celebration of the 150th anniversary of European settlement of Victoria but it was such a hit that cyclists demanded another event the following year. Farren sees the Great Rides as one of the most significant tools in the development of cycling in Victoria. “The events that Bicycle Victoria have nurtured have put enormous numbers of Victorians on bikes and they have ended up as sympathetic car drivers,” she points out. “I’m proud to have been a part of that.”