72 Australian GeographicD
AYBREAK APPROACHES at Burkes
Lookout in the Dandenong Ranges.
This opening in the stringybarks on
Mt Corhanwarrabul is reached by a
quick trot up a gravel path. As look-
outs go, it’s hardly swish; graffi tied boulders fl ank
a steel-mesh ramp used as a hang-gliding launch
pad, and a security fence above protects a gangly
trio of TV towers. Even the view – across to the
suburbs and industrial estates – barely registers
on the wow scale. But then, with the sun edging
up behind the mountain, the close proximity to
Melbourne sharpens into focus and warm light
fl oods 35km across the plain all the way to the
CBD’s glinting glass towers and Port Phillip Bay.
With 4.25 million people camped on the door-
step of these ranges, it’s no wonder they attract a
huge following. In reality, however, the appeal of
the Dandenongs is more complex; as tangled
as the terrain itself, with its knots of ridges and
deep, mist-draped gullies. Generations of
Melbournians have escaped here to take in the
mountain air, commune, picnic and stride out.
Looking west from Corhanwarrabul to suburbia
is but a sideshow. Far more compelling is the view
within from the sublime sanctuary of tall timber.
Head just 6km south along the range from
Corhanwarrabul and you arrive at the headwaters of
Sherbrooke Creek. Nine walking tracks dip into the
valley below. From the ridgetop fl urry of traffi c and
village shops, you’re transported into the seclusion
of lush forest and the realm of Earth’s tallest fl ower-
ing plant, Eucalyptus regnans, the mountain ash.
To enter the company of these giants is uplifting,
a little unnerving and often neck-straining. Massive
columns of wood, mountain ash can soar upwards for
more than 100m. With their canopies almost out of
sight, the lower trunks fi ll the forest’s stage like the
pillars of a temple. Marbled in splotches of soft grey
and silvery sage, they stand in contrast to a crowded
understorey of tree ferns with lacy fronds spreading
like feathery green parasols.
This fern–eucalypt association is the Dandenongs’
signature. Every track or mountain road swooping
down the eastern and southern fl anks of the ranges
seems to reveal another lavish, frond-fi lled gully.
Among them, Sherbrooke Forest is one of the prime
strongholds of temperate rainforest – a haven of
mountain ash, mountain grey gums, silver wattle, soft
tree ferns, blackwood and southern sassafras. Far from
the nearest road, the only sounds in the valley stillnessare the distant screeches of sulphur-crested cockatoos
and the gurgle of water from the creek below. It’s not
hard to imagine how potent this place must have once
been as a summer refuge and hunting ground for the
Wurundjeri people.
Even on a damp autumn day the enfolding
forest is all-powerful and overshadows Sherbrooke
Falls – a modest splash of white water over rocks.
“We probably should really call it a cascade,” notes
Matt Hoogland, chief ranger at Dandenong Ranges
National Park. A short footbridge spans the creek at
the falls. “We just replaced this crossing,” he says, point-
ing to the fallen remains of a colossal mountain ash
lying across the creek. “It came crashing down a few
months back and wiped out the old bridge.”The only sounds in the
stillness are the distant
screeches of cockatoos.