Melbourne Day Walks

Length: 3.83 km (shortened after not going through the overgrown Nature walk full of spider webs)

Time taken: 1 hour, 20 minutes (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 53 metres

I walked this alone which in retrospect wasn’t a great idea, but beside a run in with spiders in the ‘Nature walk’ it was a pleasant walk. The walk follows the Yarra River up to what is known as Blue Tongue Bend, which is an unexceptional bend in the river. However the bushy scenery makes this walk worthwhile.

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Canoeists along the Yarra River

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The track follows the Yarra River

The Yarra River

I found this sign amusing... mostly because it was upside down.

Rocks along the track

Stairs on the track

A gorgeous log

The Blue Tongue Bend. (Yes this is it.)

Another nice log

The track back was a wide management road for the most part.

Length: 3.94 km

Time taken: 1 hour (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 38 metres

I was waiting for a nice day to do this walk and I got it! I was surprised by how ‘bushy’ this walk was compared to other parts of the beach track closer to the city. Some parts of the track were quite hidden in the bushes, while other parts were exposed near the road, and other parts were right along the beach. The track climbs up and down from the beach, to the top of small cliffs, to the road, providing many different types of views.

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Steps down to the track along Sandringham beach.

Sandringham Beach

Rock seats are built into the cliffs along the side of the beach.

Rocks in the sand at Sandringham Beach

The beach here is patrolled by lifeguards.

A view of the walking track, bike track, and road all beside each other.

A view of the beach from behind the bushes

The view of Sandringham yacht club from up on the cliffs.

A nice view of the beach from the cliffs. Dogs were playing in the sand islands below.

Looking down to Hampton Beach

Wild Berries!

A picnic shelter at Hampton Beach. This shelter will apparently be totally rebuilt in the next few weeks and include windows out to the beach. .

A marshy area between the beach and Beach Rd.

The walking track near the sand

A pier

An old rail tunnel between Brighton Beach and the railway station.

Length: 6.27 km

Time taken: 1 hour, 37 minutes (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 61 metres

This would have to be one my favourite walks in inner Melbourne due to how rural and bushy it feels even though it is only a few kilometres from the city centre.  The first section of the walk is along a very narrow track on a cliff edge over the Yarra River. Considering how narrow the track is and how long the drop is I was surprised to mountain bike riders along here. The track then meets up with a path used more by cyclists than walkers, but there were plenty of walkers and joggers on the day I was there. It then passes through Abbotsford Convent and the Collingwood Childrens Farm and Community Garden. This is the only inner Melbourne walk where you can see cows! The tracks then passes Dights Falls, where a couple were taking their wedding photos on the day I was there, and then follows the Yarra River around to Studley Park Boathouse.

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Stairs leading down to the cliff side track. (I am looking back at the track in this picture.)

The narrow track along the cliff side

Another view of the narrow track.

Looking down the Yarra towards the City from the track.

The track crosses the Yarra on this bridge...

And on the other side of the bridge theres a staircase leading back down to the track. The cyclists have to carry their bikes up/down these stairs

This part of the track is obviously used more by cyclists.

The Abbotsford Convent

Cows near the convent. These must be the closest cows to the Melbourne CBD.

A tractor at the Collingwood Childrens Farm.

The windmill at the Collingwood Childrens Farm

A couple having their wedding photos taken near Dights Falls

An interesting rock face along the Yarra

Length: 4.3 km

Time taken: 1 hour (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 33 metres

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this walk was considering it runs behind the Deakin university and schools in Burwood. I was expecting the creek to be fairly small and narrow, but it was quite full and flowing when I was there. I’m not sure how much this was due to the flash flooding a couple of days earlier. The flooding had flattened some of the marsh grass (if that’s what you call it) along the side of the creek.

The walk was very easy and relaxing. I was tempted to stop and watch the water flowing over the rocks for a while.

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The marsh grass had been flattened by the flash flooding a couple of days earlier.

One of the rocky sections of the creek along this path

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One of the bridges that cross the creek

The Deakin University carpark through the trees.

A really nice section of the path where it winds around a bend

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At Burwood Rd a u-turn has been created in the path

Another bridge

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Length: 4.3 km

Time taken: 1 hour, 40 mins (including breaks for pictures and catching my breath :))

Grade: Moderate (Tyrone Thomas rated this as Easy…. he has a funny idea of easy!)

Climb: 298 metres

This walk is better known as the Thousand Steps, but includes an extra section up to what is known as One Tree Hill. I found the 800m walk to the steps from the car park more draining than the walk up the steps, but I did have to stop numerous times on the steps to catch my breath and take a quick sip of water. The weather was warm and sunny on the day which didn’t help matters. It will be interesting to see how much easier it is on a cooler and overcast day.

By the time I reached the top of the (785) steps I was grateful for the seat in the shade. From the top another path leads up to the One Tree Hill picnic area. This area is at the summit of the hill, but there are sadly no views due to all the surrounding trees. However there is still a marker at the top that shows the distance and direction of other major landmarks around Melbourne.

The walk back to the car park is down a wide track that runs almost parallel to the steps, but is an unrelenting downhill grade that I found quite slippery. I had to concentrate on my footing to be careful I didn’t slip. A number of people were walking up this track which would not have been fun.

The path has been made into a memorial for the Kokoda track and there are numerous memorial plaques with historical information about Kokoda along the way. Many of these plaques were being used as seats.

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The start of the path to the steps with the arch commemorating the Kokoda trail.

The track branches off to the steps and to the path I returned on.

There was some beautiful rainforest along the way.

Along the path to the steps

The beginning of the steps

One of the Kokoda memorial plaques

Resting at the top of the steps

The trees around One Tree Hill had obviously been through a bushfire, although i'm not sure when.

The marker on the summit

Length: 8 km (Longer than in the book due to accidentally back tracking part of the path!)

Time taken: 2 hours (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 35 metres

This was a surprisingly pretty and interesting walk considering it was partly down streets and along the back of houses. How we managed to prematurely end up back at the beginning of the walk and not realise until we saw the car is a mystery, but the mistake thankfully only added an extra km to the walk.

The first half of the walk is along a creek that backs onto houses, but it’s quite nice and was reasonably busy with walkers and joggers while we were there. The next part of the walk is crossing a main road and down a National Trust Classified street with some very interesting looking houses. I didn’t even know streets could be National Trust Classified! The last part of the walk was a circuit of Blackburn lake, which is surprisingly large and picturesque.

The walk was easy, but longer than the usual lake circuit walks in the book when combined with the streets and creek.

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The creek

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There were some interesting water fowl hanging out in the creek. You can see it standing on the concrete.

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This tree fell over the track, but instead of removing it the council has erected signs at both sides warning walkers and cyclists not to hit their heads!

A small lake within the creek

Another water fowl

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The National Trust Classified Street sign on Jeffery St

Blackburn Lake

One of the platforms over the lake

Another view of the lake

Length: 3.7 km

Time taken: 50 mins (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: n/a

Cherry Lake is a relatively short and basic walk around a lake, with a view of Altona’s industrial structures in the background. Half the walk is parkland, and the other half is a conservation area with a bird hide and some wetlands. The walk was flat but thanks to the change in scenery between the conservation and recreation areas there was enough variety to keep it interesting.

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Fisherman sitting on a short pier over the lake

A map of the lake

Altona's industrial area in the distance.

Cute ducks in the lake

The official separation between the conservation and recreation area.

The conservation area

A nice tree along the path

The bird hide

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The path through the conservation area

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Length: 6.35 km

Time taken: 1 hours, 50 mins (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 20 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

This walk followed the Patterson River from the beach to the Frankston Freeway and back. The whole walk was quite open and exposed which resulted in me getting a touch of sunburn on my arms and neck. I’m glad I had company for this walk because it would have been long and boring without it.

From the path we saw boats and jet-skis on the river, and the back of houses on the land. The beach at the end was lovely as the sun was fully out.

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The Frankston train line and Nepean Hwy bridges crossing the river near the entrance.

The path along the river was quite wide and exposed for the length of it.

People sitting on a small patch of beach along the river.

A bridge crossing one of the river inlets.

The view from the bridge.

A different angle from the bridge

Rocks across the river near the freeway bridge.

A lizard trying to find his way to the other side of the fence near the beach.

A statue beside the beach.

Length: 5.1 km

Time taken: 1 hours, 20 mins (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 36 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

On a day with such fantastic weather, this walk offered a great contrast of beach and bush walking. The walk followed Mordialloc creek, starting near a cricket ground with a game in full swing, before heading towards the beach past all the moored boats, then back inland along a more bushy path.

The hardest part of this walk was working out how to cross Nepean Hwy. (There is an underpass as I found out too late!) The scenery, especially along the beach, was quite pretty. At the beach I walked the length of the pier, where an older woman nearly hit me with a fish she was reeling in, and up the beach path to the lifesaving club.

Overall the walk did feel quite urban as there was almost always buildings visible, but the beach section made up for it.

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One of the little lookout platforms over the creek.

The path along the creek.

The boat ramp and adjacent carpark were super busy due to the great weather.

The track passes by this train parking area near Mordialloc station.

The view towards the beach.

I'm not sure if this area was a boat graveyard or maintenance area, but there were plenty of land based boats lying around. This is along the Nepean Hwy.

A great mural along the path to the beach. The man on the street post looks 3D in front of the background.

Mordialloc Beach

People fishing on the rocks at the entrance to the creek.

Looking from the end of Mordialloc pier back to the beach. This pier was extremely popular with fishermen.

A view of the pier and creek entrance.

Mordialloc Beach (again)

A more bushy section of the walk, heading back inland.

Length: 4.3 km

Time taken: 1 hours, 30 mins (including breaks for pictures)

Grade: Easy

Climb: 39 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

Of all the walks i’ve been on, this had the most variation in track type. The track and scenery changed from foresty, to sandy coastal, to grassy, all within a couple of kilometres. I was really quite amazed at how coastal this track looked in sections considering it is no where near the beach!

The walk is only meant to be 4km, but due to part of track in the book being permanently closed we had to walk a little further to get around. The extra part was then a bit flooded but luckily there was a section not too deep we could walk over.

This was really a surprisingly nice and scenic walk considering the location and size of the reserve.

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I can't get enough pictures of dead trees against the blue sky 🙂

A grassy section section of the track

There were Ant Hills all over the place. I was scared to stay still too long for fear of one of the many angry bullants climbing my shoe.

The dam

Another section of the trail... starting to get sandy

The track looked and felt very coastal for a while

'Telstra track' - because it is along the side of Telstra owned property... This was where the track in the book that no longer exists started.

The track was flooded and a couple of ducks called it home

A nice burnt out tree trunk

A very grassy part of the track

Many trees had fallen over