From Mt Buffalo Gorge Lookout Blow Hole - Flinders Coast This is the INTERNET GUIDE TO SHORT WALKS IN VICTORIA! Its author and creator is Bob Padula, OAM, of Mont Albert, in the east of Melbourne.   I am a Professional Engineer, providing technical consultancy services in the area of high-frequency broadcasting - I graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1967, and was employed by Telstra Corporation until 1998.    I have been actively involved in bushwalking since 1954, and regularly undertake short walks around Greater Melbourne and nearer country areas. I also have a passion for digital photography, 4WDing along unmade roads, and exploration of parks, reserves, sanctuaries, coasts and mountains!    This Guide contains details of walks I have completed in the period from March 2005 until now, and most can be completed by anyone with a moderate level of fitness.  Some walks are suitable for persons with limited mobility.   Most walks described are located in the general area around Melbourne, but there are many further afield!   In publishing this free Guide, and sharing my knowledge and experiences through the Internet, it is with the hope that it will encourage readers to set aside some time to venture regularly into the Victorian countryside and enjoy the beauty and scenery which it offers, and at the same time support the development and maintainence of an appropriate level of fitness.      The starting points for all of the walks listed are easily reached by conventional cars, including some over good unsealed gravel roads. They range from relatively short hikes of about an hour or less, to more extensive half or full day adventures. Overnight walks are not included in this Guide.   Some walks are step-on, step-off shorter hikes, which are part of longer multi-day trips. They include the:   17 km Dandenong Ranges Tourist Track  24 km Beeripmo Walk (Mt Cole State Forest) 91 km Great Ocean Walk (Apollo Bay district) 16 km Dandenong Ranges Western Flanks Walk  6 km  Emerald-Cockatoo Trail 15 km O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail (Warburton district) 35 km Rainbow Bird Trail (south of Ballarat) 35 km Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail 10 km  Mt. Evelyn Aqueduct Trail   I have also included accounts of many of the network of excellent walks constructed by the Great Dividing Trail Association, based in the Daylesford district. Several walks are along the nearer Coast, including trips around Westernport Bay.     The Guide also covers many walks in the extensive Yarra River Parklands to the north east of Melbourne, and hikes in reserves and parklands in the outer east of Melbourne, including the large Dandenong Valley Parklands.   Destinations. Some of the hikes are to places which are not often visited, which have been discovered from careful research of Melway's and other maps, personal observation, perusal of the comprehensive Park and Track Notes issued by Parks Vic and DSE, examination of hard-to-get publications, and contacts with Shire Councils, Bushwalking Clubs, activity-based organizations. and social media Site Navigation. Clicking on the desired link on the Navigation Bar at the top of this Front Page will take you to the selected Regional page, where you will find a listing of the walks in that Region. The Navigation Bar appears on each page, and the headings there are Rollover Links. Throughout the Guide, except the Navigation Bar, text which is underlined is a clickable link to a URL, either internal or external.   Each walk shows distance from Melbourne,  length, duration, features, date completed, general notes. Some have links to Track Notes (or Maps) issued by Parks Victoria or other agencies, and links to the relevant Photo Album for that walk.   The Photo Albums have detailed information about the Walks to which they refer, and the images may be viewed there as Slide Shows or individually.   APRIL 2018 -  PLEASE NOTE   Many of the Photo links to the walks are no longer active. These were hosted by the Worldisround.com Photo Storage service which was permanently closed down without notice by the administrator in mid-2014. That site had about 1 million images from several thousand subscribers, all of which have been irrecoverably lost.    Walks have been placed in the most appropriate Geographical Region, which include National,  State, or Local Parks. Several of the bigger Parks extend across the geographical regions adopted in the Guide - they include several tracks in the Dandenong Ranges, the Lysterfield Hills, and West Gippsland.   Sub-pages are provided for some Regions, where there are many walks.   All of the walks listed have been undertaken by myself in the period from March 2005..   A word of caution: some walks in the Dandenong Ranges National Park and the Kinglake National Park are steep and rocky, and care should be exercised if undertaking those tracks during or after wet weather.   I have also included details of the 37 km Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail, which I completed by bike in 2006 - there are many access points to this wonderful Trail, which is used by walkers, cyclists, horses, ponies, joggers, prams and dogs!   Support Features. There are links on the Navigation Bar to various features in  the Guide, which you are invited to explore!   Though created for Walking, the Guide may of course be used alternatively for selecting interesting destinations for non-walking activities, or sight-seeing! Visit Best Lookouts for a  selection of special viewpoints!   New content or updating information will be added to this Guide from time to time. I frequently visit many places to review previous walks,but unless there has been substantial change, I do not describe these reviewed hikes in the Guide!   I hope that this Guide will have provided you with some interesting destinations to explore! (Bob Padula)

Bogong High Plains - early 1900s (SLV) HIKING AND BUSHWALKING IN VICTORIA  Visitors to this Website may be interested in joining the (free) Facebook Group "Hiking and Bushwalking in Victoria". The Group's main objective is to provide a means of quick interaction, information and discussion between its several hundred members about their hiking and bushwalking experiences in Victoria.   (Members must have a Facebook account).   To join, please click the image or this link!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/hikingvictoria/