By Gabriella Vukman
After over five years, the Sassafras Creek Trail is now open between Sassafras township and Lyrebird Falls near Monbulk.
The trail has been closed since 2019 due to storm damage to the Lyrebird Falls bridge.
Now that the bridge has been repaired, this section of the trail is open to all who wish to frolic amongst some temperate rainforest foliage.
Vice President of the Friends of Sassafras Creek group Meghan Lindsay said the group has been advocating for the Lyrebird Falls bridge and others to be fixed for quite a while.
“We have had some more damage since the massive storms where lots of trees were down so we have been advocating for those to be fixed for quite a while with letters to members of Parliament and we’ve spoken to Parks Victoria,” she said.
“One of the challenges Parks Victoria faces is a lack of funding. They don’t have enough funding to maintain our trails and fix bridges let alone look after the forest so we are also advocating for the increase in funding for Parks Victoria to help manage our beautiful forests.”
The section around the bridge and through the area is all temperate rainforest and Meghan said it is home to a threatened plant community.
“It is pretty special that we have got that in the Dandenongs and we can go for a walk through it – it is a perfect spot in summer,”she said.
Friends of Sassafras Creek is a volunteer group who dedicates their time to looking after Sassafras Creek and the forest around it.
Meghan said the group works to look after the creek from Sassafras down to Monbulk.
“We like to protect and look after the creek so we have working bees to pull out the weeds and plant native plants. We also do bird surveys and apply for grant funding and things like that,” she said.
“It is a really beautiful section of cool temperate rainforest, a beautiful spot to walk through. It is home to some amazing plants and animals like critically endangered slender tree ferns, long-nosed bandicoots, orchids and one of our volunteers even saw a platypus there recently. It is an important area for us and a great area for locals to go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful forest.”
Whilst the section of the trail between Sassafras Township and Lyrebird Falls is open, the rest of the trail is closed and requires further maintenance.
The full trail stretches from Sassafras to Emerald and is 17 km long.
Meghan said in some parts of the rest of the trail there are still broken bridges so unfortunately, the whole trail isn’t open but at least this section is so it’s a start.
“Personally, I really enjoy looking for orchids. There are so many ferns which are one of my favourite plants so I love walking through and looking at them all. That’s why I love walking along the trail,” she said.
“The reason I joined Friends of Sassafras Creek is just to be able to give back to nature. It’s great to be part of a group that is getting out, doing working bees, doing some weeding and doing things to look after the forest that I love walking through.”
For more information on the Friends of Sassafras Creek group visit their Facebook page or website at: https://www.fosc.org.au/
