Lysterfield Homesteads and Farms Walk

This is a 7 mile looped track which takes in lots of heritage points of interest along its way. It is located off Horswood Road, at the northern edge of the city of Casey in Victoria around 20 miles southeast of Melbourne and is managed by Parks Victoria. All changing weather and trail conditions can be found on their website. The park is part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape and country of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri People and rises from the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. It is a great destination for families and there is a large variety of activities to be found here; as well as walking and hiking tracks there are also nearly 20 miles of competition standard mountain bike trails, plus a lake, with two designated bays where swimming is permitted. Kayaking and paddle boarding can also be practised here. Note that the lake is not supervised. With many picnic areas and barbeque spots it is a great day out destination and is very popular, especially at weekends and high season. There is lots of wildlife to be seen here too; kangaroos, koalas and wallabies as well as around 140 different species of birds. Dogs are not permitted in the park and there are park rangers about to uphold this rule. The park is open to hikers and cyclists 24 hours a day although the main car park gates are closed at sunset until sunrise, however, there is a car park on Logan Park Road, not far from the main gates that is open 24 hours. The trail starts from the Mahogany car park in the park and is best walked in an anti-clockwise direction. There are many points of interest along the trail; a dam wall, ruins of an old abandoned farm and untended orchards, part of a tramway along with a stone hopper and many exotic trees. The highest point of the trail is at 328 ft and the descent is steep and rocky, but short. This trail is not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs due to some significant slopes and loose surface gravel but little legs should be fine with doing it. It is graded as Medium; for information on how we grade trails, please click here. It will take around 3 to 3.5 hours to complete, alhough. caution is advised on trail times as this depends on multiple variables. For more info, click here. Map Souce:https://walkingmaps.com.au/