Dandenong Ranges

For other uses of the name Dandenong, see Dandenong (disambiguation).

Dandenong Ranges
Corhanwarrabul, the Dandenongs
Left - Mount Dandenong and right - Mount Corhanwarrabul, viewed from Mooroolbark
Highest point
Peak	Mount Dandenong
Elevation	633 m (2,077 ft)
Coordinates	37°49′38″S 145°21′10″E
Dimensions
Length	50 km (31 mi) N-S
Width	10 km (6.2 mi) E-W
Geography
Dandenong Ranges Location of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Range coordinates	37°50′08″S 145°21′33″E
Parent range	Great Dividing Range
Geology
Rock age	Devonian
Rock types	Igneous Sedimentary Metamorphic

The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just the Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges in Victoria, Australia, approximately 35 km (22 mi) east of the state capital Melbourne. A minor branch of the Great Dividing Range, the Dandenongs consist mostly of rolling hills, rising to 633 m (2,077 ft) at Mount Dandenong, as well as steeply weathered valleys and gullies covered in thick temperate rainforest, predominantly of tall mountain ash trees and dense ferny undergrowth. The namesake Dandenong Creek and most of its left-bank tributaries (particularly the Eumemmerring Creek) originate from headwaters in these mountain ranges. Two of Melbourne's most important storage reservoirs, the Cardinia and Silvan Reservoir, are also located within the Dandenongs.

After European settlement in the Port Phillip Bay region, the range was used as a major local source of timber for Melbourne. The ranges were popular with day-trippers from the 1870s onwards. Much of the Dandenongs were protected as parklands as early as 1882, and by 1987 these parklands were amalgamated to form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, which was subsequently expanded in 1997. The range receives light to moderate snowfalls a few times in most years, frequently between late winter and late spring.

Today, the Dandenongs are home to over 100,000 residents and are popular amongst visitors, many of whom stay for the weekend at the various bed & breakfasts throughout the region. The popular Puffing Billy Railway, a heritage steam railway, runs through the hills villages of the eastern Dandenong Ranges.

Geology and ecology

Sherbrooke Forest

Olinda Forest, west of Olinda Falls

The range is the remains of an extinct volcano last active 373 million years ago. It consists predominantly of Devonian dacite and rhyodacite.

The topography consists of a series of ridges dissected by deeply cut streams. Sheltered gullies in the south of the range are home to temperate rain forest, fern gullies and mountain ash forest Eucalyptus regnans, whereas the drier ridges and exposed northern slopes are covered by dry sclerophyll forest of stringybarks and box. The entire range is highly prone to bushfires, the most recent of which have been the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, the 1997 Dandenong Ranges bushfires and small fires during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

A number of watercourses originate in the Dandenongs, these include:

• Cardinia Creek
• Clematis Creek
• Dandenong Creek
• Eumemmerring Creek
• Emerald Creek
• Ferny Creek
• Mast Gully Creek
• Menzies Creek
• Monbulk Creek
• Muddy Creek
• Olinda Creek
• Sassafras Creek
• Sherbrooke Creek
• Stringy Bark Creek
• Wandin Yallock Creek
• Woori Yallock Creek

Waterfalls

• Olinda Falls
• Sherbrooke Falls
• Griffith Falls

Summits

Mount Corhanwarrabul summit, 2005

Sortable table

Summit Name	Height (m)	Comments	Location	Source
Mount Dandenong	630	Tallest peak of the Dandenongs	Observatory Road, Mt Dandenong	DANDENONG ECC J survey mark
Mount Corhanwarrabul	612	Burkes lookout and location of transmission towers	Burkes Lookout Reserve, Eyre Road, Mt Dandenong	contour data
Olinda summit	592	No official name. Labelled Mt Olinda in older tourist maps.	Range Road, Olinda	contour data
Sassafras peak	538	No recorded name.	Cooloongatta Road, Sassafras	contour data
Dunns Hill	562	Location of a number of radio and telephone towers.	One Tree Hill Road, Ferny Creek	contour data
One Tree Hill	500		Lord Somers Road, Ferny Creek	contour data
Tremont Hill	395	No official name.	Tremont Hill Track, Tremont	contour data
Chandlers Hill	405		Chandlers Track, Tremont	contour data
Johns Hill	419		Johns Hill Reserve, Ridge Road, Kallista	JOHNS HILL ECC 1986 survey mark
Black Hill	374		Black Hill Reserve, Two Bays Crescent, Selby	contour data
Upwey Hill	278		Belmont Street, Upwey	contour data
Lewis Hill	298		Queens Road, Silvan	contour data
Nobelius Hill	320		Ambrose Street, Emerald	contour data
Mount Morton	275		Chaundy Road, Belgrave South	MORTON ECC A survey mark

Wildlife

The Dandenong Ranges are home to a variety of native Australian mammal, bird, reptile and invertebrate species. Well-represented bird species include the Sulfur-crested cockatoo, Superb lyrebird, Laughing kookaburra, and Crimson Rosella. Mammals include the Short-beaked echidna, Common wombat,