Dandenong etc

The name Dandenong appears to attach to many things: a locality in the Eastern part of the Melbourne area; various parks in Eastern Melbourne; a range of mountains extending somewhat further East; and a general 'region' encompassing all of the foregoing.

I had been to the locality in the 1970s - visiting a GMH facility for work - but not as a tourist.  There seemed to be many things to see in the area and we chose 2 from the list Frances had developed.  These were:

• the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden; and
• the Dandenong Valley Wetland.

We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens first as they seemed a more certain proposition (there seemed to be a few wetlands in the area and I wasn't confident we had the right one).  The first point of note was that we were both surprised to find the route included a fair length of the M1: we had a mental map map of Dandenong being North rather than East.  The route suggested by Google Maps - once we got the satnav working properly - was fine, although what appeared in the car didn't go as far along Malvern Rd as suggested in this image from my computer.  

The area between the M1 and Ferntree Gully was blah 'burbs and definitely not a tourist destination, but once past Ferntree Gully the road got twisty as it went up through Dandenong Ranges National Park towards Olinda.  Near the top were some interesting roadworks using a Dingo to scrape a lot of gunk out of the gutter.  We found the Gardens with no problems.  

They are an operation of Parks Victoria and of course there was no printed brochure (that we could find) to guide us around.  This map gave us a rough idea and there seemed to be good signposting.  The image shows our walk with red arrows out and blue arrows back.

Cutting to the chase, the Park is wonderful, certainly on the podium of gardens we have visited and quite possibly on the top step.  It has a focus on Rhododendrons (which appears to include Azaleas in some taxonomies).  Here is a view near the entrance.

A close-up of a pretty one.

I suspect there is photographer-failure here, but the aim was show the size of this tree: perhaps 10m high,

In close up the flowers are magnificent.

A nearby lurid red specimen.

We asked a local what this was and she said it was a Liyera rhododendron, but I can't find that name anywhere online.  Whatever, it was very pretty.

One of the highlights was the "Chelsea Garden" said to be a recreation of an Australian display at the Chelsea Flower Show (CFS) which got the top award.  On reading the linked page it is "20 times the size of the original." Very reassuring to read that, as I couldn't work out how they had fitted it in to the space available at the CFS.  Here is a waterfall.

This is a creation of a Protea flower.  There is a cunning feature of the 'petals' focussing on a point in the centre of the work exactly 5'3" high.  That was due to the late Betty visiting the exhibit and, I presume, being invited to climb inside!

They come in all colours!

Rhododendrons and dafodils.

There was still a little Cherry Blossom left!

Rather more Proteas!

Poor old Wombat has a bad case of mange.  Parks had a notice saying they were trying to treat it, and asking folk to stay away.

A very active and apparently heathy Echidna.

On heading off we checked the streets of Olinda for a bakery with no joy.  We did see a 'bakehouse' in the next village down but they were asking $12 for a pie and the service seemed appalling so on we went to the Quarry bakehouse on the edge of Ferntree Gully.  A much smaller establishment and a little weird - the word 'funky' springs to mind - but very helpful and an excellent Pepper Steak pie.  Got a rating of of 9.5 rather than 10 as the crust was slightly overcooked.  Also a raspberry jam doughnut had about half a litre of very tasty jam in it.

We then called in at the wetland.  

We didn't do much as we were knackered after the Gardens and the wetlands seemed to be surrounded by Melaleuca and covered by 2m high reeds.  It seems that Google Maps had taken us to a slightly wrong start, and it is necessary to walk a fair bit to find the open water.  Our friend Elke has given us a map showing the route taken by a Bayside Birders outing.

The drive home was "interesting" to say the least.  The M1 was clagged due to a prang so it took us on a suburban route (clogged due to everyone dodging the M1) until about Mount Waverly where we joined the M1 where 2 lanes were closed by recovery and police vehicles.  However the crash had been cleared.  Then, after a crawl through the Domain Tunnel, it appeared the Kingsway was closed (Arms Expo protests?) and the satnav wanted to take us off towards Westgate.  Sod that: I turned off and there  was no problem.