RidgeWalk Exploration (28km) > Trail Hiking Australia

Length: 28km
Duration: 8-9hrs
Grade: 3-4
Style: One Way
Start: Birdsland Reserve cnr McNicol Rd and Apsley Rd Belgrave
End: Mt Evelyn Football Ground (Tramway Rd)

Location: Dandenong Ranges National Park
Closest Town: Belgrave (closest to start)
Distance from CBD: 43km
State: VIC
Latitude: -37.918408
Longitude: 145.341501

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2WD Access

4WD Access

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Bitumen Road

Gravel Road

Steep Road

Winding Road

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Accessible Parking

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Mountain Bike Trail

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Urban Walk

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Historic Lighthouse

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Trail Running

Horse Riding

The RidgeWalk Exploration is a 28km, grade 3-4, one way hike located in the Dandenong Ranges National Park, Victoria. The hike should take between 9hrs to complete (with coffee breaks).

Summary

This walk attempts to follow the proposed RidgeWalk: Exploring art and landscape in the Dandenongs. The official RidgeWalk won’t be ready until around 2022 and will be approximately 26km in length. This hike however this will give you a taste of what to expect.

It is predominately a bush walk, but there are suburban sections and main road sections (Mt. Dandenong Tourist Road). It passes through several townships in the Dandenong Ranges and follows several major tracks, in order: Belgrave, Hillclimb Track, Hackett Track, Sassafras, Olinda, Dandenong Creek Track, Channel 10 Track, Zig Zag Track (v. steep), passes Burkes Lookout, Kyeema Track, passes Five Ways and Wols Track. It would be slightly easier to do the walk in reverse from Mt Evelyn to Birdsland, as you would be going down the steeper hills, but my description is for the other way.

Getting There

You could take a train to Belgrave from Melbourne and walk or catch a bus to the start. There is good parking at the start, so going by car is easier.

Tips

Take your GPS and download the file. The GPX file is very useful. But I have dropped the GPX file onto google maps here and made it public so you can see the exact track and road names.

See where the Ridgewalk will take you when completed: Yarra-Ranges-Council_Ridgewalk.

Notes

When I did the walk, I was working from my Melways, which is not totally accurate, so I lost the trail a few times and this is shown on the GPX file route. It should be relatively simple for you to identify these errors and pass these obvious dead-ends.

Hike contributed by Fred Tropp-Asher

Total distance: 28606 m
Max elevation: 603 m
Min elevation: 110 m
Total climbing: 1861 m
Total descent: -1864 m

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