Victoria desk
Visiting the Warburton Redwood Forest, Yarra Ranges
Ninety minutes east of Melbourne there is a stand of Californian coast redwoods growing in straight rows on the side of a Victorian mountain. It looks like nothing else within reach of the city, it costs nothing to visit, and almost everything written about it omits the one fact that explains it: the trees were planted, deliberately, in a grid, as a forestry experiment in the 1930s.
That is not a criticism of the place. It is the reason the place works. Naturally regenerated forest does not produce evenly spaced trunks and a clear floor, and the reason photographs of this site look like a cathedral is that a plantation is laid out like one.
Getting there from Melbourne
The drive is about eighty kilometres and takes ninety minutes without traffic: the Maroondah Highway east through Lilydale, then the Warburton Highway to Warburton, then Woods Point Road and Cement Creek Road to East Warburton. The last few kilometres are sealed but narrow and winding.
There is no direct public transport. The train reaches Lilydale and a bus runs to Warburton township, but the plantation is a further nine kilometres out and there is no service. In practice this is a car trip, and the Yarra Valley makes a reasonable route back: the valley file covers that side.
The site itself
The Redwood Forest, Cement Creek Road
A plantation of about fourteen hundred coast redwoods on roughly two hectares, planted in the 1930s. They are now tall enough to close the canopy completely, which is why the floor is bare: almost nothing grows underneath.
The car park is a gravel area off Cement Creek Road with pit toilets and picnic tables. The trees are a short walk from it on a flat track. There is no fee, no gate and no booking.
- Address
- Cement Creek Road, East Warburton, Victoria
- Status
- Standing
- Access
- Open, free
- Checked
- Aug 2026
The Cement Creek Rainforest Walk
The native forest next door
A short boardwalk loop through cool temperate rainforest (tree ferns, myrtle beech and mountain ash) starting from the same road a little further along. It takes about twenty minutes and is the part of the visit most people skip.
It is also the part that puts the plantation in context: the two forests are a few hundred metres apart, one planted and one not, and walking both in the same hour makes the difference obvious in a way no photograph does.
- Address
- Cement Creek Road, East Warburton, Victoria
- Status
- Standing
- Access
- Open, free; boardwalk
- Checked
- Aug 2026
When to go
The canopy is dense and the light inside the plantation is low at any hour, so bright days are better than overcast ones here: the reverse of most Victorian bushwalking advice. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon give the shafts of light that everyone photographs; midday flattens them.
Weekends from about ten to three are busy enough that the car park fills and cars line the road. A weekday is a different place entirely. Winter is cold, wet underfoot and almost empty, and the ferns in the gully are at their best.
Practicalities
- Facilities: pit toilets and picnic tables at the car park. Nothing else.
- Food and fuel: Warburton township, nine kilometres back down the road.
- Phone signal: patchy to absent in the valley.
- Fires: the Yarra Ranges are high fire risk in summer; roads close on days of total fire ban and the site is not somewhere to be on one.
- Underfoot: the plantation floor is flat and firm; the rainforest boardwalk is slippery when wet.
Warburton township
The town itself is worth an hour on the way back. The Yarra runs through the middle of it, there is a rail trail along the old railway alignment that runs forty kilometres back towards Lilydale, and a handful of cafés and a bakery that keep country hours; most are shut by four.
Combining the redwoods with the rail trail makes a full day. Combining them with Puffing Billy does not: the two are on opposite sides of the ranges and the drive between them is longer than either visit.
What has changed
The trees have grown, which has closed the canopy further and made the interior darker than it was ten years ago. The car park has been formalised and the toilets added in response to visitor numbers. The site is now well enough known that the quiet weekday visit is the only version of it that resembles the photographs.
The rest of the day trips out of Melbourne are in the Australia desk.
Why the trees are here at all
The plantation was established in the 1930s as a forestry trial, testing whether Californian coast redwood, a species from a narrow fog belt on the other side of the Pacific, would grow commercially in the Victorian mountains. It grows, and quickly, but the timber never justified planting at scale, so the trial stayed a trial.
What was left is about two hectares of trees planted in rows on ground that carried native forest before them. Nearly a century on they are tall enough to close the canopy completely, which is why almost nothing grows on the floor and why the interior looks the way it does.
None of that is a criticism. It is the explanation: naturally regenerated forest does not produce evenly spaced trunks and a clear floor, and the reason photographs of this place look like a nave is that a plantation is laid out like one.
The two walks, compared
| The Redwood Forest | Cement Creek Rainforest Walk | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Planted 1930s, rows, bare floor | Native cool temperate rainforest |
| Length | A few hundred metres, flat | ~20 minutes, boardwalk |
| Surface | Firm needle floor | Timber boardwalk, slippery wet |
| Visitors | Busy at weekends | Almost empty |
Doing both in the same hour is what makes the visit worthwhile: two forests a few hundred metres apart, one planted and one not, and the difference is obvious on the ground in a way no photograph conveys.
The Yarra Ranges around it
- Warburton township: the Yarra runs through it, there is a rail trail on the old railway alignment running forty kilometres back towards Lilydale, and a handful of cafés that keep country hours.
- The Yarra Valley proper: wine country around Yarra Glen and Healesville, on the way out or back.
- Mount Donna Buang: above Warburton, with a lookout tower and, in most winters, the closest snow to Melbourne.
- La La Falls: a short walk from Warburton itself, and the best waterfall within reach without a long drive.
Fire, and taking it seriously
The Yarra Ranges are among the highest fire-risk landscapes in the world, and the mountain ash forests around Warburton have burned catastrophically within living memory. On days of extreme fire danger or total fire ban, the sensible answer is not to be in the ranges at all: roads close, there is one way out of the valley, and mobile signal is patchy.
The state fire district ratings are published daily and are the thing to check before setting out in summer, ahead of the weather forecast.
Practical notes
- Getting there: about ninety minutes from central Melbourne. No public transport reaches the plantation; the bus goes only as far as Warburton township, nine kilometres short.
- Facilities: pit toilets and picnic tables at the car park, nothing else.
- Light: the canopy is dense, so bright days work better here than overcast ones: the reverse of most Victorian bushwalking advice.
- Crowds: weekends from ten to three fill the car park and line the road. A weekday is a different place.
- Underfoot: flat and firm in the plantation, slippery on the rainforest boardwalk when wet.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Redwood Forest near Melbourne?
At East Warburton in the Yarra Ranges, about ninety minutes east of the Melbourne CBD by road. The plantation stands beside the Cement Creek picnic area on Cement Creek Road, and the car park is a few hundred metres from the trees.
Are the Warburton redwoods natural?
No. They are a plantation of Californian coast redwoods planted in the 1930s as a forestry trial, in rows, on ground that carried native forest before them. The regularity of the spacing is the giveaway and is also why the place photographs the way it does.
Is the Redwood Forest walk free?
Yes. It is public land with a free car park, no entry fee and no booking. There are pit toilets and picnic tables at Cement Creek and no other facilities; the nearest food and fuel are in Warburton itself.
How long do you need at the redwoods?
Half an hour to walk among the trees, or half a day if you add the Cement Creek Rainforest Walk and the Redwood Forest circuit and stop in Warburton on the way back. Most people underestimate the drive and overestimate the site.