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Places
To Visit
Getaway
with views over Melbourne Holly Lodge B& B is
the place to visit.
Spend one romantic day, weekend or your honeymoon at Holly Lodge or enjoy a holiday with the family in fully
self-contained accommodation.
Kalorama
Scenic Lookout is only a short walk from Holly Lodge. Wander through the numerous
gardens and nurseries,
spend time at the Galleries, Antique and Craft shops, or at a romantic cafe.
Feed the kookaburras, Parrots and Lorikeets
and watch the city lights by night. Experience
the country atmosphere, the forests of the Dandenong Ranges with
all it's bird life ad tranquility or play golf at the Olinda Golf
course........
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The
Dandenong Ranges are an attractive mountain area to the east of
Melbourne. Small towns and villages characterize the area with attractive houses
nestled into the surrounding forests and beautiful gardens.
With
tree-fern gullies and tall forests. Visit the tea houses, restaurants, coffee
shops, craft shops, antique shops and Mt Dandenong Observatory for great views.
Try walking, cycling or horse riding. Enjoy a picnic at the many Picnic Grounds.
Catch the historic Puffing Billy train. Spending time at romantic Bed &
Breakfasts or Country Houses. Walk through the National Park Rain Forest and
Gardens. See Historic Homes, the Tulip Farm or fish for Rainbow Trout. Visit the
Country Markets, Sherbrooke Forest, the Yarra
Valley Wineries and
Healsville Sanctuary. This is an ideal spot for a Weekend Getaway.
.
WALKS ON THE WILD SIDE
in the DANDENONG RANGES: Most walks start from
Picnic Grounds.
Some popular walks include the 1000 steps and Living Bush Nature Trail from the
Fern Tree Gully Picnic Ground, Sherbrooke Falls from the Sherbrooke Picnic
Ground and Grants Picnic Ground at Kallista. But how about walking on an even wilder
side. If you are visiting the Kalorama/Mt. Dandenong area or staying in one
of the local charming B and B’s consider exploring the mostly deserted walking
tracks of the Mt. Evelyn, Olinda or Doongalla sections of the National Forest.
You can enjoy gentle or more challenging walks through dry and wet fern-gully
forested areas of the Mt. Evelyn section. A good place to start is from the
water tank on Inverness Rd. opposite Gumbirra bandb
.
Holly Lodge
is
an ideal location to launch walks along Ridge Rd. to the Observatory at Mt.
Dandenong, Burke’s Lookout, the Kyeema Memorial Cairn or the Doongalla Estate.
A short drive or walk to the nearby Olinda Falls Picnic Ground will give you
access to the bubbling rock waterfalls along the Olinda Creek.
.
If you decide to walk on the wild side
be sure to take a map (perhaps a mobile phone), a hat and sunscreen, and observe
National Park guidelines such as fire restrictions, respecting local flora and
fauna, leaving cats or dogs at home, not littering, and riding mountain bikes
only on designated trails. All that’s left is to choose your spot and start
walking on the wild side!
.
Things
to see in the Dandenong' s:
Dandenong Ranges National Park (3215 ha) is an attractive and popular area with
its western slopes visible from the City of melbourne. It offers opportunities
for walking, sightseeing, picnicking, cycling and car touring. More than 350
plant species have been recorded, along with 130 bird species, 31 species of
mammals (most are nocturnal), 21 reptile species.
.
The National
Park has many walking tracks with views of Melbourne and distant Mountain
Ranges. It is home to many ferneries, eucalypt forests, picnic areas, bird-life
such as the lyrebirds, crimson Rosella and eastern whip-birds, mammals such as
wallabies, bandicoots, echidnas and possums and its flora, including 47 species
of native orchids, native grasses, eucalypts and shrubs.
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The best northerly access to
the Dandenong Ranges is via Canterbury Road and Montrose onto the Mount
Dandenong Tourist Road to Kalorama and Olinda or the southern access via Burwood
Highway and Ferntree Gully onto Mt Dandenong Tourist Road to Sassafras.
The many Living Bush Nature
Walks are denoted by markers and information sheets which describe the plants
along the walks. Most picnic grounds are open to vehicles from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00
p.m. (May to October) and until 6.00 p.m. the rest of the year. There is an
entry fee for cars to some Picnic Ground on weekends, public holidays and school
holidays. You can catch Bus to the Croydon Train Station from the northern
region of the Range or to Upper Ferntree Gully Train Station in the southern
region of the Range.
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For general information and
literature contact Parks Victoria on 131 963 or, if you require more detailed
information contact the Dandenong Ranges Tourism Office at Upper Ferntree Gully
on (03) 9758 7522.
NATIONAL PARK: It is not hard to be
distracted by all the lovely
restaurants, tea-rooms, galleries and charming B&B’s found nestled in the
villages of the Dandenong Ranges. The superb setting of the National
Rhododendron Gardens, Tesselaars Tulip Farm, the Silvan Reservoir Picnic Grounds
and William Ricketts Sanctuary regularly attract Australian and overseas
visitors. It is therefore easy to forget that the
Dandenong Ranges is home to over 130 native bird species, 31 species of native
animals, 21 reptiles and 9 amphibians, all contained within the borders of the
Dandenong Ranges National Park, created in 1987 by combining five large existing
forest reserves. There are also over 300 km of walking tracks scattered
throughout the total park area of 3215 hectares. Walks vary from short strolls
to more challenging expeditions. National Parks Victoria (Ph. 131963) or
Dandenong Ranges Tourist Information Center (Ph. 9758 7522), Ferntree Gully, can
provide information and detailed maps on each of the five Park areas: Doongalla,
Fern Tree Gully, Sherbrooke, Olinda and Mt. Evelyn.
WALKS ON THE WILD SIDE
in the DANDENONG RANGES: Most walks start from Picnic Grounds.
Some popular walks include the 1000 steps and Living Bush Nature Trail from the
Fern Tree Gully Picnic Ground, Sherbrooke Falls from the Sherbrooke Picnic
Ground and Grants Picnic Ground at Kallista. But how about walking on an even wilder
side. If you are visiting the Kalorama/Mt. Dandenong area or staying in one
of the local charming B and B’s consider exploring the mostly deserted walking
tracks of the Mt. Evelyn, Olinda or Doongalla sections of the National Forest.
You can enjoy gentle or more challenging walks through dry and wet fern-gully
forested areas of the Mt. Evelyn section. A good place to start is from the
water tank on Inverness Rd. opposite Gumbirra B and B. Holly Lodge B and B is
an ideal location to launch walks along Ridge Rd. to the Observatory at Mt.
Dandenong, Burke’s Lookout, the Kyeema Memorial Cairn or the Doongalla Estate.
A short drive or walk to the nearby Olinda Falls Picnic Ground will give you
access to the bubbling rock waterfalls along the Olinda Creek.
If you decide to walk on the wild side
be sure to take a map (perhaps a mobile phone), a hat and sunscreen, and observe
National Park guidelines such as fire restrictions, respecting local flora and
fauna, leaving cats or dogs at home, not littering, and riding mountain bikes
only on designated trails. All that’s left is to choose your spot and start
walking on the wild side
.
References: Park Notes, Parks
Victoria
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During the 1880’s and the 1890’s the Dandenong's forests were decimated mainly as a result of poverty stricken city
folk being allocated 10 acre farm lets in the Dandenong's on which to make a
living. Imagine being shifted from Melbourne to the forest of the Dandenong's and
left to fell timber, build your house with your own hands, create a garden to
provide food and try to raise enough provisions to survive. It took sturdy folk
to see this through. Supplied by: Peter Uwe Schmidt c/- Cuckoo
Restaurant
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KALORAMA: Three men, Jabez Richardson,
Matthew Child, and Isaac Jeeves
were advised by the botanist Baron von Mueller to look for the land they wanted
for their homes along the valley of the Running (Olinda) Creek. In 1855 the
three came one after the other. They made their homes on the bank of the creek,
posing as miners. After a few years they applied for a license to occupy the
areas around the homes.
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"The name “Kalorama” was coined about the turn of the
century by a guest of Ellis Jeeves. The guest was a Reverend Henschelwood who
used a derivation of the Greek word KOLOS to mean “beautiful view”. Ellis applied
the name to his home and it remained its name until it was demolished by the
Forests Commission in 1970. The name Kalorama was applied to the district
between 1926 to 32 when, in order to overcome postal confusion, the name was
chosen from a list submitted at a public meeting. In a booklet “The Dandenong volcano and
settlement in its
great forest” by John Lundy-Clarke the geological story of the origins of the
Dandenong Ranges with the story of settlement on them, is told. The booklet was
published by the Lilydale Historical Society ISBN. 09594036 4 7.
Kalorama, a residential area in the
Mount Dandenong Ranges, is only 36 km east of the City of Melbourne. It can best
be reached via the Tourist Road from Montrose which is situated at the end of
Canterbury Road.
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There is a special viewing
position at the Five Ways Corner with a panoramic view over the Sylvan Reservoir
and the Olinda State Forest to the Warburton Ranges. Much of Kalorama is parkland and forest
reserve, which adds to the spacious residential environment. Some of the houses date from pre-war
times when Kalorama was a weekend resort. Several resort and guest-house places
continue to offer accommodation to visitors. This includes a large number of
very romantic, luxury Bed and Breakfast places such as Holly Lodge. Along the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road
there are Kalorama Park, Kalorama Memorial Reserve with sports facilities, an
Australian plant garden, a shop, café and post office opposite the reserve and
a café and art gallery at the Five Way Corner. The eastern part of Kalorama is
un-subdivided land, mainly a water catchments reserve and part of the Dandenong
Ranges National Park. The census population of Kalorama was 164 in (1933), 307
in (1947), 1519 in (1981) and 1300 in (1994)
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Kalorama Park: For many years the
Jeeves family ran a coach service, and after the Tourist Road was built in the
1920’s this was motorized. There was a garage and petrol station on what is
now the look-out car park. The 1939 bush fires caused havoc in the area, the
garage was destroyed and the family began to move on. Parts of the land had been
sold to build the Tourist Road, other parts obtained by the water board as
reserve land for Silvan Dam (built about 1930), and yet more had been sold off
as building blocks. In the 1950’s large
sections of the hillside remained unused, much of it still the property of the
Jeeves family.
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As early as 1953 Professor John Turner (for a long time President
of the Save the Dandenong League) made efforts, in conjunction with Melbourne's
Lord Mayor, to acquire the first section of Kalorama Park, and an initial
agreement was negotiated; but the sale fell through on the day the contract was
to be signed. Things lay dormant for some years until the Lilydale Shire Plan
was published, showing the top section of the proposed Park subdivided into
fifteen foot allotments for shops. This threat provided the impetus for the
purchase of a twenty acre section in 1963. The league raised 5,000 pounds
through an appeal in the Herald (quite a large sum in those days); a further
twenty acres was bought by the Government, and the Park was opened by Professor
Turner in April 1973. Within the Park is a
memorial plaque to Miss May Moon, who until right up to the time of her death,
Secretary of the League, and was very active in the foundation of the Park. Miss
Moon lived in Jeeves Avenue, in a house she built herself, and there is a nature
reserve dedicated to her memory beside the Kalorama Cricket Oval and Tennis
Courts. She also owned a property in Montrose that now accommodates the
Tullamore Retirement Village. This
article is a contribution by the Five Ways Galleries in
Kalorama (Mel way Map 52
J9) Tel: (03) 9728 5975
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