July–August 2015 75POINTS OF INTERESTWHEN TO GO
The Dandenong Ranges
are a year-round destina-
tion. Spring and autumn
are the most popular
seasons – especially for
enjoying colourful
European-style gardens. In
summer the shaded forest
walks and picnic grounds
are a welcome refuge.
GETTING THERE
The Dandenong Ranges
are less than an hour’s
drive east of Melbourne.
The Mt Dandenong Tourist
Road links the villages
along the main ridge.
Metro Trains run regular
rail services to Belgrave.
WHERE TO STAY
The ranges offer a huge
array of B & B accommoda-
tion, from secluded cabins
and historic cottages to
modern self-contained
apartments. Many venues
are within walking distance
of the ridgetop villages
and eateries.
A
T 8 00 HA, Sherbrooke is the largest tract of
forest in what’s now the Dandenong Rang-
es NP, which evolved from the 1882 creation
of a reserve in nearby Ferntree Gully. The park, which
now encompasses 3500ha, is a cluster of protected
areas fl anking the Dandenongs’ main 22km north–
south ridge. Interspersed with small villages, roads
and housing subdivisions, this fragmented estate
poses a daily list of challenges for Matt and his rang-
er team. “We have about 40,000 residents in the
area [including] more than 1200 direct neighbours,”
he explains. “But those pressures are off set by having
so many people who are local and who care about
the place.”
At least 23 volunteer groups help drive the commu-
nity push to promote and protect the district’s natural
blessings. They include mobs such as the Sherbrooke
Lyrebird Study Group. Now in its 57th year, the group
helps ensure these valleys continue to resound with
the serenade of their famed ambassador, the superb
lyrebird. By the 1980s the number of individual birds
here had dwindled down to the 30s. Thanks to a con-
certed eff ort that’s included fox-baiting, cat controls
and weed management, these virtuoso songsters now
have a stable population of about 160.
Up close, their forest appears ageless but the
lyrebird’s leafy auditorium is the result of a long
journey of ecological change that began with a
volcanic eruption. About 300 million years ago, four
separate lava fl ows spilled from a nearby volcano to
the present-day township of Olinda. These basaltDeep within. A new
footbridge at Sherbrooke
Falls is dwarfed by the
cool temperate rainforest
of Sherbrooke Forest.About face. Cloudehill Nursery and Garden dates back to the
1890s. Its elaborate, many-faceted gardens incorporate more
than 50 engaging artworks and installations.
1 Silvan Reservoir Park
2 SkyHigh Mount Dandenong
3 Olinda Falls
4 William Ricketts Sanctuary
5 Doongalla Homestead
6 National Rhododendron Gardens
7 Cloudehill Garden
8 Burnham Beeches
9 Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens
10 George Tindale Memorial Gardens
11 Sherbrooke Falls
12 Grants Picnic Ground
13 Puffing Billy Railway/Belgrave Station
14 Burrinja Gallery
15 One Thousand Steps WalkUSEFUL LINKS
Dandenong Ranges National Park
http://www.parks.vic.gov.au
Tourism Victoria
http://www.visitvictoria.com
Puffing Billy
http://www.puffingbilly.com.au
Cloudehill Garden
http://www.cloudehill.com.auBurnham Beeches
http://www.burnhambeeches.com.auManor glamour. A Riley saloon at
Mawarra Manor, site of
garden designer Edna
Walling’s fi nest creation.