birdsland boardwalk gets official opening



Great to have the Shire's bushland officer,
Gavin, assist with official ribbon cutting duties.

It's official, the newly constructed boardwalk linking the Monbulk Creek bridge with the shared trail at Birdsland in Belgrave Heights is open and ready for traffic.

In another first for me, I've never officially opened a boardwalk before, the elevated boardwalk links the new footbridge over the creek to the Birdsland trail.

The boardwalk will provide cyclists and pedestrians with a safe passage into the reserve, away from traffic as well as providing a unique view of the Monbulk Creek corridor. This corridor is important as it's home to one of our iconic locals, the platypus.

The timber railings are plantation hardwood, no native forest used here, whilst the boardwalk planks are made from recycled plastic manufactured by local maker, Replas.

It's great to see the construction of this community asset which provides safer options for reserve users. Birdsland is a well loved place, visited by many locals and not only home to platypus, but to other iconic species including sugar gliders, powerful owls and wedge tailed eagles.

The boardwalk is part of the joint Yarra Ranges Council, Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria project to develop a cycle trail network linking the Belgrave township to Lysterfield Lake Park.