The Dandenongs

Introducing The Dandenongs

On a clear day, the Dandenong Ranges and their highest peak, Mt Dandenong (633m), can be seen from Melbourne. The landscape is a patchwork of exotics and natives with a lush understorey of tree ferns – it’s the most accessible bushwalking in Melbourne’s backyard.

Dandenong Ranges & Knox visitor information centre (03-9758 7522; 1211 Burwood Hwy, Upper Ferntree Gully; 9am-5pm) is outside Upper Ferntree Gully train station. Parks Victoria (13 19 63; www.parksweb.vic.gov.au; Ferntree Gully Picnic Ground, Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd; 8am-4.30pm Mon-Fri) also has maps and advice on walking routes.

Puffing Billy (03-9754 6800; www.puffingbilly.com.au; Old Monbulk Rd, Belgrave; adult/child/family return $40/20/81) is an immensely popular steam train that snakes through lush fern gullies and bush while kids dangle their legs out the window. There are up to six departures between Belgrave and Gembrook during holidays, and three or four on other days. Puffing Billy train station is handy to Belgrave train station, on Melbourne’s suburban network.

Dandenong Ranges National Park, a combination of five parks, offers short walks and four-hour trails. Sherbrooke Forest has a towering cover of mountain ash trees. Reach the start of its eastern loop walk (10km, three hours), just 1km or so from Belgrave station, by walking to the end of Old Monbulk Rd past Puffing Billy’s station. Combining this walk with a ride on Puffing Billy makes a great day out. Opposite the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens is a picnic ground where crimson rosellas will peck birdseed from your hand. Walks at Ferntree Gully National Park, home to large numbers of lyrebirds, are 10 minutes’ walk from Upper Ferntree Gully station.

William Ricketts Sanctuary (13 19 63; www.parkweb.vic.gov.au; Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, Mt Dandenong; adult/child/family $7/3/14; 10am-4.30pm, closed on total fire ban days) features sculptures blended beautifully with damp fern gardens. Ricketts’ work was inspired by nature and the years he spent living with Aboriginal people. Bus 688 runs here from Croydon train station.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009