AN investigation has confirmed the presence of asbestos fragments right across the Helensburgh Mountain Bike Track.

Wollongong City Council says it is making progress to resolve the asbestos problem found at the 2.3ha site, and is working closely with the licensee, Helensburgh Off Road Cycle Club (HORCC), on the next steps for the facility.

Council said it is currently working through site remediation approval processes with the regulator.

The Helensburgh Mountain Bike Park has been closed as a precautionary measure to allow for an investigation after asbestos was found at the site earlier this year. As a consequence, the park has been closed since May 4 after concerns were raised with Wollongong City.

The information was provided to Council by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, which had confirmed the presence of asbestos containing material within a dirt jump structure on their adjoining land.

Council closed the park to investigate the makeup of soil material on the sites dirt tracks. Regular air monitoring has...

NORTHERN suburbs residents, particularly those in bushland settings, are urged to prepare and mitigate risks ahead of a potential dangerous bushfire season this summer.

This years bushfire season has the potential to be especially dangerous according to a UNSW fire expert. Professor Guan Yeoh, director of the ARC Training Centre in Fire Retardant Materials and Safety Technologies, says recent weather patterns have created conditions that increase the chance of major bushfires.

Those include three years of increased rain which have promoted rapid vegetation growth, followed by a more recent very dry winter creating a tinderbox scenario. That means any incident of lightning, which is the cause of around 50 per cent of bushfires in Australia, could easily spark rapidly spreading fires over wide areas.

In addition, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has recently forecast that the southern hemisphere is entering into an El Nio climate cycle and has warned of a surge in global temperatures.

In the last few years, we have had a lot of rain and floods and because of that there has been a lot of...