A new way to the city

Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 08:59pm

I took the today off work and decided to ride into the city. However this was a ride with a difference. Instead of taking the established route of the Scotchmans Creek and Gardiners Creek trails I set myself a small challenge. Follow a close as possible to the railway line, keeping to the south side as much as possible. This choice was based upon bits of path that I had seen from the train.

Where did I go?

First the sections that I was familiar with:

  • Glen Waverley Station to Syndal Station is along Coleman Parade.
  • From Syndal Station to Mount Waverley Station there is a proper path all the way along the reservation.
  • After the Mount Waverley station carpark it is back to the road that follows the line past Jordanville Station and almost to Holmesglen Station where a dedicated path takes over.
  • After a detour around (or through) Holmesglen Tafe it is onto one end of the Scotchmans Creek Trail to East Malvern.

At this point I was off into the unknown:

  • From the end of the carpark at East Malvern Station I was able to cut through to the end of Short Street at which point I had to move out to Darling Road.
  • A couple of streets before Darling Station I found the start of a narrow concrete path (from Cairnes Crescent to Wynyeh Street) that took me all the way to the station.
  • After riding along Avonvale Crescent I came to what is marked on the map as a path. In reality it was just some wheel tracks between the back fences and the railway embankment. This continued along to Essex Street which brought me to Glen Iris Station.
  • Since Malvern Road was too far from the railway line I changed over to the north side of the line to follow the path and then road past Gardiner Station to Tooronga Station.
  • The tracks through Tooronga Park and then Kooyong Park brought me to Kooyong Station where I crossed back over to the south side.
  • Warra Street, Glen Road and Turnbull Avenue brought me to another narrow concrete path that climbed the hill above St. Kevins and ended at Heyington Station.
  • After a brief trip along Heyington Place I came to another path that led down to the rail bridge across the Yarra River, the Main Yarra Trail, and Citylink (formerly the Monash Freeway) into the back of Burnley Golf Course.
  • Here the path continues along the back of the golf course until it reaches the northern end of MacRobertson Bridge
  • Using the MacRobertson Bridge to cross back over Citylink, the Main Yarra Trail and the Yarra River I get to the eastern end of the path that follows the south bank of the Yarra all of the way to Southbank.

After riding a bit through Kings Domain up to the Shrine of Remembrance and back I then rode home along the north bank of the Yarra then along Gardiners Creek. While I did not find any advantage of the Gardiners Creek Trail I did have a good time exploring places I had only seen in passing.

Afterwards I started to wonder what route cyclists took before they built the suspended walkway and bridge that links Glenferrie Road to Yarra Boulevarde. Did they climb the hill behind St Kevins and cross the rail bridge like I did?

update: I added the route to the city to Bikely.

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