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| The Puffing
Billy makes its way through the
Dandenongs |
Belgrave
Attractive township in the Dandenongs famous
for its Puffing Billy railway
Located only 40 km east of Melbourne, Belgrave
is a pleasant commuter township located in the
Dandenong Ranges at an altitude of 227 m. Its
main claim to tourist fame is its outstanding
Puffing Billy railway line which is a popular
holiday attraction loved by both children and
adults.
Early in the 20th century, a colony for
writers and artists was set up by a Melbourne
businessman named J.G. Roberts. It was called
Sunnyside and attracted guests such as Tom
Roberts, Aeneas Gunn and C.J. Dennis who wrote
much of his best-known work, The Sentimental
Bloke, here.
The ranges themselves, which reach a high
point of 633 m above sea-level, consist of
volcanic lava. They experience high rainfall as
prevailing westerly winds rise when they hit the
range and then cool to produce rain. The
combination of rainfall and rich volcanic soils
renders the soil fecund and the ranges are
cloaked in vast tracts of forests and fern
gullies, as well as some distinguished and
renowned gardens. Potatoes, flowers, bulbs and
berry fruits are produced for commercial
purposes in the area.
Prior to European settlement the area was
occupied by the Woiwurung people who supplied
the word Dandenong (from 'tanjenong') meaning
lofty.
The forests drew timbergetters in the early
days of European settlement who supplied a
growing market in Melbourne. The demands of this
same market later saw some of the forest cleared
for the establishment of farms. However, efforts
to reserve land for recreational purposes began
in the 1860s and this impulse led to the
creation of a number of forest reserves which
were finally amalgamated (and expanded) in 1987
to form Dandenong Ranges National Park.
Today the area is a major tourist attraction
with numerous gardens, forest areas, lookouts,
walking tracks, nurseries, galleries,
pick-your-own berry farms, antique shops,
galleries, art-and-craft outlets, restaurants,
tearooms and picnic reserves.
The annual Puffing Billy Railway Great Train
Race pits joggers against the train over a
13.5-km course every April.
Things to see:
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Tourist Information
The Dandenong Ranges and Knox Tourism
Information Centre is located at 1211 Burwood
Highway at Upper Ferntree Gully, tel: (03) 9758
7522.
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| Waiting for
The Puffing Billy to leave Belgrave
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Puffing Billy
An antique steam train known as 'Puffing Billy',
something of a symbol of the Dandenongs, runs
from Belgrave through Emerald to the Lakeside
station and back (26 km return) and sometimes on
to Gembrook and return (48 km return). It
operates every day except Christmas Day from the
Puffing Billy railway station which is located
on the Old Monbulk Rd.
The number of trains per day and the timing
of their departure varies seasonally and there
are always more trains running on weekends and
public holidays. You can pick the train up at
any of the three stations and travel to any of
the others (one way or return). There are also
special night trains and the Luncheon Special
which departs Belgrave at midday. It offers the
choice of First Class travel in the dining
carriage on a trip to Emerald. The cost for the
Luncheon Special is, at 1 November 1999, $27 per
head. All seats must be booked and paid at least
24 hours in advance.
Prices for standard trips vary according to
the length of the journey you choose. To give
you some idea, the cost of the longest trip
(from Belgrave to Gembrook and return), on June
1, 2002, was $36.50 for adults, $16.50 for ages
4-16 inclusive, $29.50 for students and
pensioners and under 4s are free if they do not
occupy a seat. A family ticket (two adults and
up to three children or one adult and up to four
children) is $74 to Gembrook and return. All
other journeys are cheaper.
Other special attractions are Friends of
Thomas the Tank Engine Days, Commissioner's
Inspection Trains, Wedding Trains, the Mother's
Day Special, the Father's Day Special, Santa's
Specials, Jingle Bells In July, The Great Train
Race, the Historic Machinery Festival and Bike
Trains.
The Puffing Billy Steam Museum is located
behind the Menzies Creek station. It houses a
collection of Australian and overseas
narrow-gauge locomotives, rolling stock and
steam machinery. It is open weekends and public
holidays from 10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.,
Wednesdays from 11.30 to 3.30 p.m. and, for the
Luncheon trains, from 12.30 p.m. to 1.00 p.m.
Picnic and barbecue facilities are available and
the tearooms at the station are open for all
trains. Passengers may break their journey at
Menzies Creek to visit the Museum and then
continue or return on a later train.
The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Railway
first opened on December 18, 1900. A landslide
caused the closure of the line until volunteers
began the work of fund-raising and rebuilding.
Menzies Creek was reached in 1962, Emerald Town
in 1965, Emerald Lake Park in 1975 and Gembrook
in 1998.
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| The Puffing
Billy makes its way through the
Dandenongs |
The trip from Belgrave station to Gembrook
takes in Sherbrooke Forest, several fine trestle
bridges, Selby township, the landslide site,
Menzies Creek station, the Steam Museum,
Emerald, Emerald Lake Park, Wright State Forest,
Cockatoo Creek valley, Cockatoo township, a
number of remote train stations in picturesque
bush settings, Gembrook and panoramic views over
farmlands, Port Phillip Bay, Westernport Bay,
Cardinia Reservoir, Arthurs Seat, the Yarra
Valley wine region and the Warburton Range.
For recorded timetable information ring 1900
937 069 any time or ring the Belgrave office on
weekdays from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., tel: (03)
9754 6800. The expansive web site is
www.puffingbilly.com.au
The Belgrave Art Stockade
The Belgrave Art Stockade, at 64-68 Monbulk Rd,
is the winner of a Merit Award from Dandenong
Ranges Tourism. There are ten rooms of fine art,
including decorative wrought iron works,
crystals, woodwork, pottery, leather goods,
jewellery, knitwear, paintings and Australiana.
Craft demonstrations are provided on the first
Sunday of each month, tel: (03) 9754 2421.
Horatio's Amazing Home
This unusual cottage was built by Horatio Jones
in 1917. It is made of flattened four-gallon
kerosene tins on a frame of roughly-hewn
eucalyptus trees. Jones erected a second
building which housed a kitchen, pantry,
bathroom, laundry and workshop with a storeroom
upstairs. However, little of this second
building remains.
Jones was a handyman and something of an
inventor who, at the age if 17, had won a prize
for a 'self-adjusting' windmill in the 1888
Melbourne International Exhibition. As a young
man, he was also befriended by distinguished
botanist and creator of the Melbourne Botanic
Gardens, Ferdinand von Mueller. The two
investigated the forests of the Dandenongs
together where von Mueller taught Jones how to
select, dry, press and mount specimens. When the
botanist died in 1896 Jones spent six weeks
grieving at their favourite specimen-gathering
site where he built a hut which he used
periodically over the years.
Both Jones and his sisters, Christina and
Annie, were engaged before the outbreak of World
War I but both fiancees of the sisters were
killed in the war and Horatio was invalided out
in November 1916 after straining his heart while
carrying signal cable underwater. He was advised
that he didn't have long to live. To make things
worse both parents died in the war and his
father's business partner absconded to Mexico
with the company's money leaving the family with
debts. Under the circumstances Horatio released
his fiancee from their engagement. His sisters
decided to look after him in what were expected
to be his last few years. (he outlived both)
Jones returned to the site of his old hut and
built the present cottage for himself and his
sisters. There they were visited by the likes of
C.J. Dennis and John Shaw Neilson who also built
cottages in the area.
The dedicated efforts of volunteers (some
being old friends of Jones) preserved the house
and, when it was threatened in the early 1980s,
they appealed to the National Trust who
immediately gave it their highest
classification.
It is open by prior arrangement. The
admission charge includes tea, coffee and
biscuits. Ring (03) 9754 4936 for further
information and details on how to get there.
The C.J. Dennis Wilderness Hideaway
This cottage was built in 1913 by noted
Australian literary figure C.J. Dennis. It has
been restored and is open to the public by prior
arrangement. The admission charge includes tea,
coffee and biscuits. Ring (03) 9754 4936 for
further information and details on how to get
there.
Lysterfield Lake Park
Lysterfield Lake Park is based around the former
Lysterfield Reservoir which supplied water to
the Mornington Peninsula from 1936 until it was
supplanted by Cardinia Reservoir in 1975. It has
since become a recreation area. Follow the
Belgrave-Hallam Rd south-west of Belgrave for 9
or 10 km then turn right into Horswood Rd which
leads through the main entrance and ticket
office to Lysterfield Lake. The entrance is
closed at night. There is an admission fee.
This Park incorporates valuable remnant
native forest and eucalypt plantations. It is
also a wildlife refuge which has attracted
numerous bird species such as ducks, swans,
grebus, pelicans, Japanese snipe, gang-gang,
cockatoos, bellbirds, wrens and honeyeaters.
At the Lakeside Picnic Area there are
carparks, picnic areas, barbecues,
boat-launching ramps and toilets. Horse riding
is permitted in summer on some tracks in the
east of the park. Those interested in
orienteering, rogaining or bringing in groups of
40 or more must contact the Park Office first,
tel: (03) 9796 8763.
Swimming is permitted only from the beach in
the lakeside area and, while power boats are
forbidden for reasons of swimmers' safety and
for the protection of waterbird habitats,
non-powered boating is permitted in certain
delineated areas (it is excluded from the
northern, eastern and south-eastern edges of the
lake). Those with sailboats should note that a
5-metre maximum applies to monohull boats and
4.3 m for multi-hull boats. Sailboarding,
canoeing and rowing are other possibilities.
Informal competitions are allowed but not
regattas and model boating is restricted to
non-motorised craft. A brochure called 'Boating
on Lysterfield Lake' is available from the park
or ring Parks Victoria on 131 963.
Some of the park's tracks are for walkers
only while others are also open to cyclists. The
paths around the lakeside are wheelchair
friendly and there are disabled facilities at
the toilets. Access along the tracks can be
difficult after heavy rain.
The two main walks are (a) a short and
pleasant walk from the lakeside area to the dam
wall and (b) an 8-km walk around the lake,
across the dam wall and along the Tramline
Track, Lamberts Track and Lake Track, around the
northern edge of the Conservation Zone to Logan
Park Rd then through the Conservation Zone to
the main carpark.
