Hanmer Forest Heritage Area

Forest Amble (Easy)

Duration of walk: 1km, 30 minutes.

How to get there: begins and finishes at the Herman's Avenue gate opposite the car park on Jollies Pass Road.

Description of walk:
Follow the Forest Walk along narrow, winding corridors of spruces, pines, alders, and larch.

At the first junction turn left to meander through European larch planted in 1904. A feature of this section is the understorey of ivy.

A further left turn leads the track through 1978 plantings of Ponderosa pine to return to the car park.

It's possible to link this walk with Dog Stream Reserve and also back into Hanmer Springs as there are two signposted accessways

Forest Walk (Easy)

Duration of walk: 2kms, 60 minutes.

How to get there: begins and finishes at the Herman's Avenue gate opposite the car park on Jollies Pass Road.

Description of walk:
The Forest walk is placed directly in the middle of the Forest Journey and Forest Amble and begins at the same start point on Jollies Pass Road.

In fact the first part of this walk is shared with the Forest Journey from which it diverges farther on to take its own meandering path through some of the oldest parts of the Hanmer Forest. This includes plantations of pinus radiata, European alder and larch, and Corsican pine all dating to 1904. The pinus radiata are especially impressive in both bulk and height, the largest tree reaching 45m and with a volume of 11.2 cubic metres.

There are memorable sections of forest along this walk, especially in autumn. Also of interest are wild fungi in autumn and native orchids in late spring.

Forest Journey (Easy to Moderate)

Duration of walk: 3kms, 90 minutes.
How to get there: begins and finishes at the Herman's Avenue gate opposite the car park on Jollies Pass Road.

Description of walk:
Forest Journey is the longest of the walks and shares the same track with both the Forest Amble and Forest Walk at the start, but later leaves these paths and heads out deeper into the plantation.

There are two picnic areas en-route and several different plantation forests to observe and walk through along the way which include; ponderosa and radiate pines, spruces, cypress’s, and larch.

The journey is fascinating and varied and is always changing direction, so keep a good lookout for the track markers and signposts and be sure to look up as often as you look around so as to gauge the height of these massive trees.