Puffing Billy Railway

The Puffing Billy Railway was one of the four low-cost 762mm (2’6”) gauge lines built in Victoria in the early 1900’s, it was built to open up remote areas.

The line between Belgrave and Gembrook, which goes by forests, fern gullies and farmlands as it travels through the wonder of Dandenong Ranges, is the major part of the line that was opened on the 18^th of December, 1900 and it travelled over 29km (18.2 miles) between Upper Ferntree Gully and Gembrook until  it closed in 1953. It closed because in 1953, a landslide blocked the tracks and because of the operating losses, the line was closed in 1954.

But community interest ended up in the formation of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, of whose volunteers, with blessing from the Victorian State Government and assistance of the Citizens’ Military Forces, avoided the landslide and reopened the Puffing Billy line to Menzies Creek in 1962, Emerald in 1965, Lakeside in 1975 and then Gembrook in October in 1998.

The Puffing Billy is still successfully running today!