Drouin - Balfour Road Gateway Tree Walk - West & South Gippsland

Drouin - Balfour Road Gateway Tree Walk

This is a short easy linear 2.6km walk along Balfour Road (the eastern gateway to Drouin) walking on grassy verges, a concrete path and one short gravel roadside section. The walk gives views to Drouin's south and takes in the highest point on the railway line between Sale and Melbourne. Please note that there is no parking allowed in the school grounds.

Balfour Road Gateway Walk Map

1. Start outside Chairo Christian School between the No. 1 and No. 2 entrance signs on the south side of Balfour Rd.

2. Walk east on the wide grassy verge past the school grounds, up to the high point of the land where you will find two English Elms (in front of the Equestrian Centre).

3. These trees are located on the highest point of the railway line between Melbourne and Sale. It marks the watershed divide between Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment to the west and the Gippsland Lakes Catchment to the east. They were probably planted by the original family who farmed here for many years. The Balfour family purchased the farm in about 1939. Mrs Balfour really valued these trees. It was her hope that at the time of the sale of her family's farmland, when the freeway was built, that these old trees would survive... and they have. The Drouin exit road from the freeway, where these two old trees are situated, was opened in June 1984. An interesting adjunct to this story is that Jim Balfour MP opened the freeway, but Jim Balfour is not directly related to the Drouin Balfour family!

4. Walk back towards Drouin, staying on the grassy verge on the school side of the road crossing carefully over the driveway exit and entrances.

5. Before the freeway was built, all this area was a lovely piece of native vegetation and an environmental gem.The Princes Freeway Drouin bypass was started in 1977 and officially opened by the Hon Jim Balfour MP, member for Narracan on 12th February 1981.

6. Keep walking west. On the north side of Balfour Rd there are native melaleucas, acacias, blackwoods and eucalypts after a long stretch of cleared land.The bushland is always alive with birds. Keep an eye out for Brown Thornbills, White-browed Scrub-wrens and Superb Fairy-wrens in the low scrub and Golden Whistlers, Spotted Pardalotes, parrots, lorikeets and honeyeaters in the canopy.

7. As you walk west continue along the path.

8. Stop and look over to the south side landscape. The Reservoir on the hill is a 30 million gallon (137 mega litres) reservoir supplying Drouin's town water that was built in the mid-late 1960s.

9. Can you spot the two remnant giants on the other side of the road? Both 30 m high with canopy widths of 20 m and girths of 5.7 m and 5 m. They are estimated to be 200+ years old and have many trunk hollows. Keep your eyes open for the many blue wrens in the undergrowth.

10. Enjoy the views here, then turn around and walk back the way you came.

11. After the sale of the Balfour farm for the freeway, the remainder of the land was purchased by Buln Buln Shire for the potential construction of saleyards for Warragul and Drouin.This did not eventuate and the land was subsequently sold to Chairo Christian School for their Middle and Secondary campus.