Operating for over 20 years and based in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia, Wild Horizons is a multi-faceted business with its common link being the outdoors.
Events, Tours & Training
We organize a number of large, logistically complicated adventure events in Australia. Over the past 15 years this has included some 50 major events including the Highland Fling, Australia’s largest MTB Marathon.
| Race Events In addition to Australia’s largest MTB marathon; the CamelBak Highland Fling, Wild Horizons runs a range of other MTB and multi stage races. Having been in at the beginning; kicking off endurance MTB events in Australia in 1997 with events such as the Polaris Challenge and the Urban Polaris, Wild Horizons continues to put on fun and challenging events; The Mountains To Beach event is a multi stage race from the slopes of Australia’s highest mountain to the surf at Narooma: 380km over 5 days. The 3 Ring Circus is a popular event in Wingello State Forest, showcasing the great singletrack on offer and coming with its very own circus theme! For details on our Races see here |
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| Tours Wild Horizons run a number of outdoor adventure tours and holidays. Over the past 25 years this has included Mountain biking in Australia, Asia and Europe, XC Ski and Ski Touring holidays/instruction in Australia and Europe, Ski Touring in the Indian Himalaya and Trekking in the Himalaya. We also specialize in tailoring adventures to your requirements. This can include mountain biking, ski touring and walking throughout Australia and overseas destinations. With wide experience across Australia and in a large range of countries and activities just tell us where you want to go and what you want to do and we can take it from there. For current Tours see here |
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| Clinics We run a range of mountain bike skills clinics throughout the year. We can tailor a clinic for a group or provide private instruction. Our popular ‘women only’ clinics have female instructors and are tailored to suit the needs of women looking to improve their skills. For our current Skills Clinics see here |
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Consultancy
Wild Horizons is not just about races. With vast experience across the outdoor spectrum, we offer a range of services to organisations from Commercial Product developers to Government departments
| Contract Event Management We offer a full contract event management service. This can range from advising on aspects of an event to the full running or management of an event. |
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| Corporate Events Wild Horizons runs corporate events for those looking for an outdoor or adventure theme for their staff or clients. These include luxury cycling programmes with quality accommodation, rides guided by Australia’s top riders, bike fitting and guest speakers. We can also make it as ‘back to nature’ as you like with ski tours, hiking, kayaking and camping. Wild Horizons Corporate can tailor events to suit any clients needs. For more details see here |
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| Trails and Facility Design and Construction Consultancy Wild Horizons has a wealth of experience in planning, building and using sustainable mountain biking trails. We offer design services to ensure your proposed trail is sustainable, enjoyable, and cost effective. Wild Horizons can assess your project, provide feasibility studies, analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your proposals, design reports and more. We have consultants that can provide legislative reporting for your project including Environmental Impact Assessments and Flora and Fauna Impact studies. If you need the trail built, Wild Horizons can also provide construction services. Don’t underestimate the skills in designing and building a good trail! |
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| Writing and Photography Wild Horizon’s director, Huw Kingston, is well known as a contributor to a number of publications providing articles and images on outdoor topics, expeditions, events, destinations, the environment. He also has vast experience copywriting for outdoor catalogues/adverts/training manuals etc. |
Our Team
Wild Horizons draws on expertise from a large and diverse group including full time employees and key members of our team, collectively known as ‘The Dark Side’, some of whom have been with us for 15 years or more. Their skills and understanding enable to make the impressive claim that in 15 years and over 50 large events we have never started an event or a stage in an event a minute later than scheduled!
| Huw Kingston - Director Huw is a well known figure in the outdoor and mountain bike world with a long interest and involvement in environmental issues as well as a passion for the great outdoors. He has spent 25 years enjoying travelling by human powered means in wild places across the world. Before Huw set up Wild Horizons in 1992 he worked in the outdoor equipment industry in the UK and Australia. More details on Huw can be found here |
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| Danien Beets – Operations Manager Danien was an Olympic Architect for more than 12 years, designing facilities for the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games. He now combines this project experience with his love of mountain biking MTB trail design and construction. Danien brings a professional approach to both our events and consultancy and even dragged Wild Horizons into the social media age! |
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| Wayne Byard – Course Director Wildlife artist, skilful mountain biker, wood fired pizza chef and brilliant problem solver, Wayne has been working with Wild Horizons since our very first event in 1997. His attention to detail and ability to keep on going is legendary. Wayne is based in Narooma on the beautiful south coast of NSW |
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| Wendy Kingston – Event Registration Mentor How can you replace the best? We are still trying as Wendy threatens ‘this is my last event’! She assists our event registration team both before and during an event with an ever smiling face and an eye for detail. Based in Bundanoon but making regular trips to Sydney as ‘grandmother of the year’! |
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| Erica Galea – PR/Media Erica juggles a life of mother, PR professional in a large consumer goods business with an amazing ability to ‘get out’ there on the bike and on foot, taking in as many MTB races and adventure events as her busy schedule allows from her Sydney base. |
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| Alex McNee – Course/Mechanic Starting life as a freshwater ecologist Alex soon found he preferred fixing bikes to fixing rivers and certainly to working out in the real world to working in government. Based in Canberra, Alex is a key member of our event team and often accompanies our tours as a mechanic. |
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| Barbara Ertz - Accounts/ Registration Barb pays our dues and somehow understands the weird world of MYOB and internet banking. Everyone is nice to her or they don’t get paid. Come event time she is our Registration Master, taking over the reins from Wendy. Occasionally spotted around the streets of Bundanoon on her cruising bike. |
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| Beverley Atkins Sometime operations coordinator and long time team member, working with Wild Horizons is a businessman's holiday for Bev as she also runs an Events/Conference business. Keeps the champagne flowing with Wendy on those long sessions at the event registration desk. |
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| Mark Raddatz Mark, along with his partner Nicky, was last year given special permission to miss a Wild Horizons event, the first since they joined the team in 1998, so they could caretake wild, windswept Maatsuyker Island off the south coast of Tasmania last year. Back now, with much longer hair and beard, Mark is a lynchpin at many of our events running the event centres. |
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| Nicky Barry Nicky is a legend – at registration, running feed stations and being on hand at just about every event we’ve ever run. Nicky’s day job is as a draftperson whilst her spare time is taken up with rescuing wildlife or finding bargains at markets. |
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| Ant Schnabel Climber, mountain biker, skier..........all pale into insignificance when Ant runs an Event Centre, whether for the Briars Highland Fling or the 3 Ring Circus. Whether positioning portaloos or building banner arches, Ant is ‘The Man’. Been on the Dark Side for over 10 years now.
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