Where to ride a dirt bike in the ACT

The rules in the ACT

The ACT is the tightest jurisdiction in the country for off-road riding — but the common belief that there is nowhere legal to ride here is wrong.

Two forests, one condition

Access Canberra names Uriarra Forest and Pierces Creek Forest as places you may ride, on the condition that the bike is registered and the rider licensed, following road rules throughout. Parks ACT describes the same two pine plantations as open to trail bike riding with a registered motorcycle. Kowen Forest is gated: riding there needs a booking, applied for at least a fortnight ahead.

The two agencies describe the permitted ground differently — Access Canberra refers to fire trails, Parks ACT to formed management trails and single-track networks. Confirm with the forest office before you plan around the difference.

No recreational registration

The ACT has no recreational or off-road registration class, and that is the binding constraint. The registration types run to standard, heavy, interstate, alternative fuel, non-standard, historic, rally and wheelchair-modified, and nothing recreational. An unregistered vehicle permit is short-term and expressly not a substitute for registration. Access Canberra’s position on an unregistered dirt bike is unambiguous: private land, with the owner’s permission.

So the ACT inverts the usual problem. Other jurisdictions offer recreational registration and then restrict the land. The ACT offers the land, and no way to register a standard dirt bike to use it.

Reserves, parks and enforcement

Nature reserves are closed to motorbikes through activities declarations made reserve by reserve under the Nature Conservation Act 2014, carrying penalties of up to 100 penalty units for a prohibited activity. In Namadgi National Park, even a registered trail bike is not allowed off public roads or past locked gates. Riding in suburban parks, ovals and greenbelts is not permitted anywhere in the ACT.

Enforcement is active and recent. ACT Policing ran a targeted operation on trail bikes and e-rideables from June 2026, prompted by damage to sportsgrounds, and said bikes would be seized where use was found to be illegal. Police-quoted fines run to $700 for an unregistered vehicle on the road and $355 for riding on a path or greenbelt.

Where electric bikes sit

ACT Policing has been explicit that the rules apply to motorcycles electric or petrol alike, and named illegal e-motorcycles alongside trail bikes in that 2026 operation. Transport Canberra sets the bicycle line at a 200-watt power-assisted cycle or a 250-watt pedelec cutting out at 25 km/h, and states that a device above those limits may be classified as a motor vehicle — and that if it cannot be registered, it may only be used on private property. For a typical high-powered electric dirt bike, that is the whole answer.

General information only, checked against government sources in September 2026 — not legal advice. Rules change, and local governments set their own conditions. Confirm with the relevant agency and the venue before you ride.