Shelley Harris Track

Moderate

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4.8km return from Jehosaphat Gully Picnic Area through wet mountain-ash forest with Yarra Valley and Bunjil Cascades views, per parks.vic.gov.au.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

4.52 km

Est. time

1 hr 30 min

Elevation gain

177 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +47m over ~300m (around the 3.9km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Kinglake National Park, Yarra Valley / Ranges, VIC. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Austral Grass-tree

Xanthorrhoea australis

Centuries-old, fire-adapted icon▾

Centuries-old, fire-adapted icon

A slow-growing icon of Victoria's poor, leached soils — trunks are built up over centuries and some individuals are estimated at 350-450 years old. Flowers prolifically in the season or two after bushfire, sending up a spear-like flower spike to 2m tall.

How to spot it

A thick black, corky trunk topped with a dense skirt of long, blue-green, needle-like grass leaves, often with older dead leaves hanging down the trunk. Common in heath and dry forest across the Grampians, Wilsons Promontory and the Kinglake ranges.

Family Asphodelaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Xanthorrhoea australis

Photo: Erin Silversmith (GNU Free Documentation License 1.2+), taken at Kinglake National Park, via Wikimedia Commons

Silver Banksia

Banksia marginata

Regionally scarce on Melbourne's volcanic plains▾

Regionally scarce on Melbourne's volcanic plains

Widespread across southeastern Australia and IUCN-listed as Least Concern overall, but Wikipedia notes it 'has almost disappeared' from the basalt plains west of Melbourne due to historic land clearing — making surviving stands in volcanic-plains parks like You Yangs and Werribee Gorge ecologically significant.

How to spot it

A highly variable shrub to small tree with narrow, dull green leaves showing a white underside and a prominent midrib. Yellow cylindrical flower spikes 5-10cm tall, made up of up to 1,000 individual flowers, appear from late summer to early winter and fade to grey seed cones.

Family Proteaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Banksia marginata

Photo: peganum (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Short-beaked echidna

Tachyglossus aculeatus

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's most widespread native mammal▾

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's most widespread native mammal

The short-beaked echidna is an egg-laying monotreme covered in cream-coloured spines and fur, with a long toothless snout and a fast, sticky tongue for catching ants and termites. It is found across almost every Australian habitat, from alpine areas to arid interior, making it one of the country's most widespread native mammals.

How to spot it

Usually seen ambling slowly across a trail or frozen mid-dig at the base of a log — a spiny, dome-shaped animal 30-45 cm long with a slender snout. If disturbed it will curl or dig straight down into the soil rather than run, leaving just a dome of spines visible. Most active by day in cooler months, more nocturnal in warmer weather.

Family Tachyglossidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons