The Possum Track is deep in the Olinda Forest, linking Olinda Creek Rd with Hermon Track, about 25 km east of the Melbourne CBD, in the Dandenong Ranges National Park.
It is unsigned and is listed by Parks Victoria as a "closed" track.
It passes through some of the best regrowth forest environment in the Park, with beautiful ferns, fern gullies, mountain ash and tree ferns.
Two creek crossings are encountered, one of which was flowing (a tributary of the Lyrebird Creek) the other dry due to the extended drought.
I explored this marvellous track on Monday afternoon October 5, 2009.
My hike started at the the Olinda Creek Rd, then along gated Georges Track. The turn-off to Possum Track is opposite a sign denoting its junction withy Georges Track - it is easily missed, and is partially overgrown. Sections of it are steep and muddy, and it ends at signed Hermon Track, my turnaround point.
Many large ant nests were seen on George's Track, but the inhabitants were down below!
Distance travelled was about 4 km.
The tracks in the Olinda forest were originally logging routes from the 1860s up to the 1940s, where bullock trains hauled the cut logs down to the nearest railhead.
The original eucalypt forest was virtually destroyed by a series of bushfires between 1948 and 1955, and again in 1962. What is seen today is mainly regrowth.
See the full set of Photos of my trip!
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