The 1000 Steps in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges is a haven for nature lovers and fitness junkies alike.
For the uninitiated, it’s a relatively steep, rocky staircase through some of the most spectacular cool temperate rainforest, where Melbournians flock every weekend to get the exercise and nature fix that their city-bound souls yearn for.
After walking about 800 metres from the car park on a gently ascending gravel track visitors find the 1000 Steps, which follow a creek through a lush rainforest gully thick with Tree Ferns and Manna Gum. After a gruelling 290 metre vertical ascent over 1.4 kilometres, you emerge at the dam at the top of the steps where you’ll most likely find a bunch of other visitors huffing and puffing while they stretch and recover from their climb. I’ve even received a round of applause here on occasions where I’ve looked like I really needed it.
Most people return to the car park back down the steps but there are other options if you’re up for adding a little extra distance to your walk (see below for walk variations).
The highlight of the 1000 Steps for me (and especially my kids) is often the wildlife. I’ve seen wallabies and echidnas, even in the busier areas in between the car park and the base of the steps. The impressive range of birdlife is even more common and, in the case of lyrebirds, more special. What’s great is that, despite how many visitors the Steps see these days, the lyrebird numbers actually seem to be increasing. Keep an eye (and an ear) out for them foraging in the undergrowth beside the track.
The other (more official) name for the 1000 Steps is the Kokoda Memorial Track and you’ll notice plaques along the way depicting the lives of the soldiers who fought and died on the real Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, during World War II.
