The suburb of Cairnlea has great grasslands. Once the Albion Explosives Factory, amazing populations of Critically Endangered creatures such as Striped Legless Lizards ("Stripies") made their home amongst the native grasses and the wildflower meadows.

We'll start at Denton Avenue Grassland. Ginnifer Station is just up the road, so you can easily bike down from there. Denton Avenue Grassland is an old landfill site, and a surprising collection of native plants managed to survive around all the rubbish piles.

From Denton Avenue Grassland we will ride along the bike path beside the Ring Road to a cluster of three grasslands: Jonesfield Corner, Reid Street and Section G Grasslands (they're actually one big grassland, but they get chopped up by being on different parcels of land). Development Victoria is currently trying to get permission to destroy the Section G Grassland for a housing development. Costco has a planning application before Council to build right next to Reid Street Grassland. Grasslands on private land are almost never safe!

We'll keep going by the Ring Road to the richly diverse Featherheads Grassland.

Finally we will make our way, by back streets, to Iramoo, which is a very large grassland with a big population of Stripies and where the local conservation group has been working hard.

There are facilites at Iramoo. We can have some refreshments before exploring what it has to offer.

This tour is part of Brimbank Mental Health Week.

Itinerary

1. Meet at Denton Avenue Grassland (Use "63 Denton Avenue" in your GPS: see map), for an introductory talk starting 1:00 pm. Leave for Jonesfield Corner at 1:30 pm.

2. Explore Reid Street Grassland from 1:45 - 2:10 pm, then bike to Featherheads.

3. Explore Featherheads 2:20 - 2:35 pm. Bike to Iramoo.

4. Enjoy refreshments at Iramoo from 2:50 - 3:20 pm, then go and explore until 4:00 pm.

What to bring

Something to drink

Closed shoes (the ground gets rocky and uneven)

Be prepared for the weather!

Camera!

The Grassy Plains Network represents land managers, academics, ecologists and community concerned about the decline of our native grasslands, especially in and around Melbourne. We advocate for grasslands.

Contact the host of Cairnlea grasslands by bike