Flagship day hire · Melbourne to Puffing Billy
Ride one way. We’ll meet you at the other end — and the afternoon is yours.
1 hour
From Melbourne
24 km
Of steam railway
5–8 hrs
Private hire
The Dandenong Ranges sit about 40 kilometres east of Melbourne, around an hour's drive. Puffing Billy runs daily on its original 24-kilometre mountain track from Belgrave through Menzies Creek and Emerald to Lakeside, continuing to Gembrook on Fridays to Sundays. ME CABS runs it as a private 5 to 8 hour hire — and because you have a car, you can ride the train one way and be collected at the far end instead of riding back the way you came.
Book the train first · we build the day around your booking
The one thing that shapes the day
Almost everyone rides Puffing Billy as a return journey. Not because it is better, but because they parked at Belgrave and the car is still sitting there. The return leg is the same forest, in the same direction, an hour later — and it costs a family two or three hours of the day.
With a car of your own, that constraint disappears. You board at Belgrave, ride one way through Sherbrooke Forest and over the trestle bridge, and the car meets you at Lakeside or Gembrook. The afternoon is then free for the gardens, the villages and the view from the summit.
Choose your journey
The times on the left are the ride. The times on the right are what the same trip costs when you have to come back for your car.
Belgrave to Lakeside
About 2.5–3 hours
Given back to your day
Roughly two hours back for the gardens and villages. The classic.
Get a fixed quote for this dayTimetables shift with the season, school holidays and public holidays. We confirm against your booking confirmation rather than a published table.
Book the train first
Every Puffing Billy ticket must be pre-booked online. There are no walk-up tickets at the station — and that includes the free tickets for children under four. Puffing Billy is also a cashless venue, and trains sell out on weekends and through school holidays.
Tickets and timetables at puffingbillyrailway.org.auPuffing Billy
Run largely by volunteers, on the same alignment it was built on. Some of this changes what you should wear and where you should sit.
What to know before you board
What it is
A narrow-gauge steam railway built in 1900 and still running on its original mountain track — one of the finest preserved steam railways in the world, operated largely by around 300 volunteers.
The line
24 kilometres, Belgrave to Gembrook, via Menzies Creek, Emerald, Lakeside and Cockatoo. It crosses historic timber trestle bridges, the first being the curved Monbulk Creek Trestle Bridge just out of Belgrave — the photograph everyone wants.
The carriages
Open-sided. The decades-old tradition of sitting on the carriage sill with your legs outside has returned, permitted in designated areas under crew supervision.
Runs
Daily, except Christmas Day.
Stations
Belgrave (1 Old Monbulk Rd), Menzies Creek (49 School Rd, with the steam museum), Emerald, Lakeside (Emerald Lake Rd, with the Visitor Centre and the larger car park) and Gembrook (1 Main St).
Seasonal services. Train of Lights, Day Out with Thomas, murder mystery dinners, the Puffing Billy Running Festival and Dog Express services run through the year, and they sell out early.
What else you can do
Times are how long you spend on the ground. The one-way train is what makes room for any of it.
The far end of the one-way ride · 3 stops
Whichever station your ticket ends at — a lake park with paddle boats, the village at the end of the line, or the museum halfway up the hill.
The main stop
On the ground · 1.5–2.5 hrs
The new Lakeside Visitor Centre holds a modern café, a gift shop and a gallery of steam artefacts in Lakeside Hall, with Grazing Boxes available to pre-order. Emerald Lake Park itself has two lakes, gardens, bushland walking trails, a playground and vintage paddle boats on Lake Treganowan. Emerald Lake Model Railway & Miniature World is one of the largest model railways in Australia, and the stop that keeps train-obsessed children happy for another hour.
End of the line · Friday to Sunday
On the ground · 1–1.5 hrs
A quiet township at the foot of the ranges with a handful of eateries on the main street, Gembrook Park, and a good playground right beside the station. The section from Lakeside runs through Wright Forest and open farmland — a completely different landscape from the fern gullies at the Belgrave end.
Short journey
On the ground · 30–45 min
A leafy hamlet with a steam museum beside the station. The right choice when the group includes a toddler whose patience is measured in minutes.
Mountain ash, lyrebirds and one very steep climb · 4 stops
The world's tallest flowering trees, wild lyrebirds in Sherbrooke, and the climb that every single person underestimates.
Sherbrooke · lyrebird country
On the ground · 45–90 min
The largest remaining stand of mountain ash in the ranges — the world's tallest flowering tree — over a dense tree-fern understorey. The Sherbrooke Falls Walk is a moderate loop of about 45 minutes return to a gentle seasonal cascade, best after rain. This is the best place in Victoria to hear a superb lyrebird, which mimics every other bird in the forest; early morning and quiet are the two conditions that matter. Wallabies, wombats and the Powerful Owl also live here. No dogs anywhere in the national park.
Edge of Sherbrooke Forest · free
On the ground · 30–45 min
A picnic ground ringed by towering mountain ash where cockatoos, king parrots and rosellas gather, with accessible walks leading off it. The classic dawn spot for lyrebirds. Two things to be clear about: organised bird feeding is no longer permitted, and the café has been closed since early 2026 while Parks Victoria seeks a long-term operator. A mobile coffee van runs on site Tuesday to Saturday in the meantime — enough for a coffee, not for lunch, so we plan the meal elsewhere.
Ferntree Gully picnic ground
On the ground · 1.5 hrs
A steep 3 km loop climbing beside a creek through rainforest to One Tree Hill, returning on the wider Lyrebird Track — about an hour and a half return. It is a memorial to the Australian soldiers and Papuan carriers of the 1942 Kokoda Track campaign, with plaques along the climb, and the site was chosen because the terrain resembles the original track. The name recalls the Golden Staircase, the 2,000 steps Australian Army Engineers cut into the real track in Papua New Guinea. Genuinely demanding — uneven, rocky, slippery when wet, with no water fountains, and not suitable for prams, wheelchairs or dogs. The car park fills early, so this one wants a midweek or first-thing start. Café at the base.
Five sections, no single address
On the ground · Varies
Doongalla Forest, Ferntree Gully, Sherbrooke Forest, Olinda Forest and Mt Evelyn Forest, each with its own entrances. Open every day of the year. Easier options include the Margaret Lester Forest Walk and the Olinda Creek Track, and Olinda Falls is a short walk best after rain. The June 2021 storm is still shaping which tracks are open, so we check Parks Victoria's changed conditions before every trip.
The quietest hours of the day · 6 stops
Five cool-climate gardens and ninety-two ceramic figures set into a fern gully — the half of the ranges nobody photographs through a coach window.
1402 Mount Dandenong Tourist Rd · free entry
On the ground · 45–60 min
Ninety-two kiln-fired ceramic sculptures set into rocks, tree trunks and fern gullies across four acres — the lifetime work of William Ricketts, who settled here in 1934 and kept working until his death in 1993. It is the largest collection of outdoor sculpture by a single artist in Australia, and the biggest news in the ranges in five years: closed by the June 2021 storm, it reopened in stages on 3 August 2026, with Ricketts' original residence and the gallery building still fenced off while restoration continues. Open daily 10am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm, and it may close on Total Fire Ban days, in high winds or for works. Parks Victoria reports record visitation since reopening and asks people to come on weekdays because of parking pressure — the public car park is 150 metres along Mount Dandenong Tourist Road toward Kalorama, not at the gate, which is a problem a car that can drop at the entrance simply removes. No picnics, food, drink or dogs inside. Ricketts' depictions of Aboriginal people are the subject of ongoing academic debate.
Sherbrooke Road · free
On the ground · 45–60 min
An ornamental lake with a timber boathouse below terraced gardens of mountain ash, gingko, maple and liquidambar, with small waterfalls on the descent. The single most photographed garden in the ranges and spectacular in autumn. Picnics are welcome here — the natural pairing after William Ricketts, where they are not.
Olinda · formerly the National Rhododendron Gardens · free
On the ground · 60–90 min
Victoria's premier cool-climate garden — rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and daffodils across sloping lawns with long views over the valleys. Peak colour in spring; quiet and structural in winter.
Olinda and Sherbrooke · free
On the ground · 45 min each
The two gardens most visitors miss, and the best autumn colour in the ranges. Quieter than the botanic garden, and easier to park at.
Olinda · ticketed
On the ground · 60–90 min
Around twenty English-style garden rooms on a former flower farm, with a restaurant and nursery. The only major garden here that charges entry, and worth it for keen gardeners.
Olinda · free
On the ground · 45–60 min
Around 150 species of native and exotic trees across open hillsides, with Woolrich Lookout over the national park. Space to walk without a crowd.
The drive back over the ridge · 6 stops
The summit lookout over Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay, the ridge road itself, and the tearoom villages it threads through on the way home.
The summit
On the ground · 60–90 min
The summit lookout, with panoramic views over Melbourne, Port Phillip Bay and, on a clear day, as far as the You Yangs. Bistro and café doing house-made scones, terraced gardens, picnic areas with free barbecues, walking tracks, and the largest hedge maze in Melbourne — the reliable way to occupy children for forty minutes. Best at sunset, when the city lights come on below.
The drive itself
On the ground · 45–60 min end to end with stops
Around 30 kilometres of winding road through mountain ash and fern glades linking Ferntree Gully, Sassafras, Olinda and Mount Dandenong, with Burke's Lookout, Kalorama Lookout and the Observatory along the way. Tight, narrow and beautiful — and far better enjoyed from the back seat.
Village
On the ground · 45–75 min
The most browsable village in the ranges — antique shops, homewares, Geppetto's Workshop for toys and puppets, Tealeaves for loose-leaf tea, and Miss Marple's Tearoom, the Devonshire tea institution with a queue out the front most weekends. Fires, floral tablecloths and traditional English fare.
Village
On the ground · 45–60 min
Curated homewares and clothing, cafés, one of the best playgrounds in Melbourne's outer east, and The Cuckoo — the long-running Bavarian smorgasbord with yodelling and cowbells that guests either love or never forget. Three day spas within a short drive for guests who want to end the day slowly.
Villages
On the ground · 30–60 min each
Belgrave has cafés, a bookshop culture and the Burrinja Cultural Centre. Kallista and Emerald are quieter, with tearooms and a slower main street. Belgrave is where the train starts, so it is the natural coffee stop before boarding.
Sherbrooke
On the ground · 60–90 min
Set in the restored stables and piggery of the historic Burnham Beeches estate, part of chef Shannon Bennett's project on the property. Country breakfasts and long lunches, with outdoor tables over lawn bowls and croquet. The best sit-down meal in the ranges, and the one to book.
When the train is not enough · 2 stops
For the days when a steam train and a forest are not, on their own, going to be enough.
Belgrave
On the ground · 2–3 hrs
Treetop ropes courses and ziplines through a private forest garden, graded by difficulty for different ages. Book ahead — sessions are timed.
Silvan · mid-September to mid-October
On the ground · 2–3 hrs
More than a million spring bulbs across the farm, with food, entertainment and weekend themes. Seasonal, ticketed and extremely popular — book and go early.
Trip shapes
Two of them do not involve the train at all, which is the honest answer for repeat visitors and for walkers.
5 hours
Coffee in Belgrave, ride one way to Lakeside, an hour or two at Emerald Lake Park, then collected and driven back over the ranges via Sassafras for Devonshire tea. The shortest genuine day out we run, and the one that suits grandparents with grandchildren.
7 hours
One-way train to Lakeside, Emerald Lake Park, lunch at Sherbrooke or Olinda, Alfred Nicholas Gardens, William Ricketts Sanctuary, then SkyHigh for the late view. The version that uses the one-way train properly.
8 hours · Friday to Sunday
Belgrave to Gembrook one way, lunch and a wander at Gembrook, then collected and driven back through the ranges for the gardens and the summit. The whole railway without the six-hour return.
6 hours · no train at all
An early start for the 1000 Steps before the car park fills, then Sherbrooke Falls, lunch in a village, and Olinda Falls or the arboretum.
6 hours
Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden, Alfred Nicholas, Pirianda, George Tindale and Cloudehill, with lunch between. Best in spring and autumn, and the quietest day in the range.
The dawn version
Lyrebirds are heard at first light, and the 1000 Steps car park is empty at 7am. An early collection turns the busiest attractions in the ranges into private ones and puts you back in Melbourne by early afternoon. Ask about it when we quote — early starts are arranged case by case rather than sold off a shelf.
When to go
The line at the foot of each panel is what that stretch of the year is actually for.
Dec–Feb
The fern gullies stay cool when Melbourne bakes, long evenings at SkyHigh, and paddle boats at Emerald Lake. Busiest period for the train.
The escape from the heat — genuinely several degrees cooler.
Mar–May
Peak colour at Pirianda, George Tindale, Alfred Nicholas and Cloudehill. Mist in the gullies, and comfortable walking.
The photographer's season, and the prettiest version of this day.
Jun–Aug
Waterfalls at full flow, fires lit in the tearooms, low cloud through the mountain ash, and the quietest trains of the year.
Devonshire tea weather. Book the fireside table.
Sep–Nov
Rhododendrons and azaleas at peak, the Tesselaar Tulip Festival from mid-September, and lyrebird activity high.
The flower season, and the busiest weekends — book everything.
Why book it this way
That single limitation is why the one-way ride is only available to people with their own car — and it is the whole of the argument.
Vehicle and group
Flex
1–3 guests
Standard sedan. Comfortable for the easy classic.
Plus
1–4 guests
Premium sedan or SUV. The default for couples and small families.
Group
5–7 guests plus prams
People mover. The right call for multi-generational days — this trip skews heavily to grandparents plus grandchildren.
Mobility
Wheelchair passengers
Must be booked ahead. Several key sites in the ranges are accessible; carriage access on the train is a question for Puffing Billy directly.
Before you go
The things guests ring up about the night before.
Pickup
Door-to-door from any Melbourne hotel or address, at a departure time set from your train booking.
Train tickets
Pre-booked online through Puffing Billy, and not included in the hire unless arranged. Send us the confirmation and we set the day around it.
Dress
Several degrees cooler than the city, open carriages, and the forest holds damp. Layers and closed shoes.
Food
Cafés at Belgrave and the Lakeside Visitor Centre, tearooms in every village, and Piggery Café for a proper lunch. Emerald Lake Park is one of the best picnic spots near Melbourne.
Cash
Puffing Billy is cashless — bring a card.
Dogs
Not permitted in the national park, at the 1000 Steps, at William Ricketts, or on the train other than assistance dogs and scheduled Dog Express services.
Wildlife
Lyrebirds, wallabies and wombats are all active close to the road at dawn and dusk.
Toilets
All Puffing Billy stations, Grants Picnic Ground, SkyHigh, the villages and William Ricketts. None on the train.
Questions
About 40 kilometres east — around an hour by car, and the shortest of our regional day trips.
No, and this is the main reason to have a car. Ride one way and the car meets you at Lakeside or Gembrook, which saves two to three hours for the gardens, villages and the summit.
No. Every ticket must be pre-booked online, including the free tickets for children under four, and the railway is cashless. Trains sell out on weekends and school holidays.
Belgrave to Lakeside — about an hour each way — is the classic and runs daily. Belgrave to Menzies Creek is a short taster for toddlers. The full run to Gembrook takes about an hour and fifty minutes and operates Friday to Sunday.
Yes. The tradition has returned and is permitted in designated areas under crew supervision. Bring sunglasses or a hat — it is a coal-fired steam train and soot does travel.
Yes. It reopened in stages on 3 August 2026 after being closed since the June 2021 storm. Entry is free, and it is open daily 10am to 4pm with last entry at 3.30pm. Some areas remain fenced while restoration continues, and weekdays are much quieter.
Sherbrooke Forest, and Grants Picnic Ground at its edge. Go at first light and stay quiet — that is the whole technique. Tell us when you enquire if you want the day built around an early start.
Genuinely steep. Parks Victoria grades it Steep and puts it at 3 kilometres and about an hour and a half return, on uneven rocky ground that gets slippery in the wet. Not suitable for prams, wheelchairs or dogs, and there is no water on the trail. The car park fills early, so it is best done first thing.
It is the best of our day trips for them. A short train ride, a lake with paddle boats and a model railway, a hedge maze at the summit, and the shortest drive of any trip we run.
The day is quoted as a fixed fare before you book, based on the vehicle you need and how long the day runs. Tell us your date, how many guests and which train journey you have booked, and we will put a figure in writing. Puffing Billy tickets are booked separately with the railway.
Plan the day
Send us the booking confirmation. We check park conditions for your date, agree the fare before you leave, and the car is where you get off rather than where you got on.
Yarra Valley
The natural pairing — the two regions adjoin, and Puffing Billy in the morning with two cellar doors after lunch is a genuine combined day.
Phillip Island
The Penguin Parade at sunset, timed backwards from your ticket.
Great Ocean Road
The long one — Twelve Apostles and the Otways, 10 to 12 hours.
Hourly hire
The parent service — a driver by the hour, anywhere in Melbourne.
Maxi taxi
People movers for five to seven guests, prams included.
Accessible transport
Wheelchair-accessible vehicles, booked ahead.
Journey times, station facilities, accessibility and booking conditions come from Puffing Billy Railway. Park detail, the William Ricketts reopening notice and current track conditions come from Parks Victoria. Attraction and village detail comes from Visit Victoria, Tourism Australia and SkyHigh Mount Dandenong. Puffing Billy fares are not listed here — book and check current pricing directly with the railway. All are current as at 25 August 2026 and are re-verified before quoting.
