Monbulk Trestle Bridge

June 2020.

It’s been been a cold, wet wintery weekend here in Melbourne with little reprieve between showers to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, without returning home soaking wet. Of course it’s always beautiful in The Dandenong’s regardless of Mother Nature’s choices. During summer the tall Mountain Ash offer a shady hideaway from the hot summers sun and during the winter months the area turns into a misty wonderland. It’s nice to get out and appreciate the things that our fast paced lifestyles often overlook, such as trestle bridges that you may have driven under countless amounts of time but never stopped to take in their beauty such as this little (rather large actually) gem which we stopped at to explore.

The Monbulk Creek Trestle Bridge was constructed in 1899, and is 91 metres long and 13 metres high. It is of course one of Melbourne's historic Puffing Billy Railways bridges and can be seen in Selby, just out of Belgrave. There are quite a few carparks situated just next to the bridge which is often full of people excited to see the iconic Puffing Billy chuff his way over the bridge and into Sherbrooke Forest. Whilst the bridge is still beautiful in its own right, it doesn’t quite feel the same standing there admiring its beauty in the knowledge that no trains are going to pass over it at this point in time. The sight of excited tourist waving from the locomotives window always gives joy to those either passing through the area along Belgrave-Gembrook Road which runs underneath the bridge, or parked in carpark in anticipation. It’s a popular spot for locals, tourists and photographers alike but do remember when exploring that Belgrave-Gembrook Road is quite a busy road, so keep clear of it.

Monbulk Creek flows below the bridge (can be seen at the bottom of this photo) and does house a platypus population, which has sadly declined to a critical level with only one population remaining in the creek. This is extremely sad and I understand Melbourne Water were investigating opportunities to improve the platypus habitat in this particular area, however I am unsure of what came of their investigations. I have never seen a platypus in Monbulk Creek but would love to.