Beenleigh 8 Foot Steel Ramp
SUBMISSION TYPE: Donation
The Beenleigh Eight Foot Steel Halfpipe was Beenleigh BMX Park’s first metal ramp.
Sometime in late 1988 or early 1989, this steel eight-foot half pipe was delivered to Beenleigh BMX Park as a donation from the Gold Coast City Council. There have been many theories surrounding the original location of the ramp and why it was relocated to Beenleigh, but no information can be verified.
The ramp arrived at the park in separate pieces on the back of a couple of flatbed trucks and was constructed on the area where the current concrete mini-ramp exists today.
To accommodate park upgrades the ramp was moved by June of 1989 to make way for the construction of the concrete mini.
Alan McMullen riding the steel halfpipe during a Brisbane trip, August 1989. Image: Jim Brock.
By 1990 a quarter pipe was added to the south end of the halfpipe and the first strip of bitumen was laid as a run up, with the halfpipe still resting dirt.
The steel halfpipe resting on dirt with the added quarter pipe on the south end of the ramp, January 1991. Image: Jason Chant.
By May of 1992, the entire area of Beenleigh BMX Park had its bitumen ground surfaced and the halfpipe was moved to the west side of the park.
The steel halfpipe’s final location, painted blue with the 1992 park upgrades. Image: Michael Canfield.
The halfpipe remained in the same location until around 2004 when Tim Wood was contracted to rebuild all the ramps as part of the new Beenleigh BMX Stunt Association (BBSAI) upgrades. Tim utilised the ramp’s flat bottom to construct new welding tables to build the new ramps which were ridden until Beenleigh BMX Park’s demolition in May 2019.
Once the welding tables were no longer of use, the flat bottoms were retired on Tim Wood’s acreage where they sat out in the weather for many years.
In April of 2021, Unscene contacted Tim about obtaining samples of the sheet metal and framework to submit into the Australian BMX Freestyle Archives. Tim’s donation allows Unscene to preserve the oldest existing ramp of Beenleigh BMX Park.
