Locations
( Where we train )
Our Locations
Our main training location is Tom Kelly Athletics Track on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with Doncaster Athletic Club. Ruffey Lake Park, across the road from Tom Kelly Athletics Track, is also regularly used for Warm Up (WU), Cool Down (CD), and Main Sessions (MS).
Our Saturday training location varies depending on the time of year and upcoming events. Our main locations are (click title to jump to location):
- Birdsland Reserve (Belgrave Heights)
- Churchill National Park (Rowville)
- Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve (Dandenong)
- Ferny Creek and The Dandenongs (various)
- Jells Park (Wheelers Hill)
- Lysterfield Lake Park (Lysterfield)
Birdsland Reserve
Birdsland is a 75-hectare (185-acres) bushland reserve located in the southern area of the Dandenong Ranges, between Belgrave and Lysterfield Lake Park. Originally inhabited by the Wurrendjeri people, around 150 years ago the land was cleared for grazing and crop production. The land was owned and used for sheep farming by the Birds family from about 1940 until 1981 when the Shire of Sherbrooke purchased it and converted it into a community bushland reserve, opening in 1984. Today, Birdsland is home to over 130 different native birds including the Wedgetail Eagle and Powerful Owl, and over 200 species of native plants.
In addition to the many lovely undulating trails in and around Birdsland the main path around the lake is exactly one kilometre, making it perfect for K reps and threshold work. Two paths connecting the lake with the main carpark allow the circuit to be extended to two-kilometer loops.
Birdsland is closed on days of Total Fire Ban.
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Churchill National Park
Located 31-kilometres south-east of Melbourne, Churchill National Park’s 271-hectares (670-acres) adjoin and connect with Lysterfield Park. Originally established on 12 February 1941 as the Dandenong National Park, the park was renamed in 1944 in honour of Sir Winston Churchill.
Churchill’s varied terrain, soft trails, and gorgeous scenery provides the perfect location for any non-track-based session.
Churchill National Park is closed on days of Total Fire Ban.
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Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve
Known as Nerre Nerre Warren to its original inhabitants, from October 1840 to December 1844 the land now called Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve became the headquarters for the Melbourne or Western Port District of The Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate Station, established to ‘protect’ Aboriginal people from the frontier violence by encouraging them to move to government stations. At this location, school classes and religious services were held for Aboriginal people and rations provided in exchange for manual labour.
From 1842 to the early 1850s the Native Police Corps was stationed here. The Corps, consisting of Aboriginal men under the leadership of Captain Dana, were involved in dealing with disputes between Aboriginal and European people across Victoria, were also the first police stationed on the goldfields, and they acted as guards at Pentridge Prison at Coburg. Until 1931, many of the Aboriginal trackers who worked with the Victorian Police were based with the Victorian Police Horse Stud Depot at the Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve.
Today, Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve is one of Melbourne’s best training locations for middle and long distance athletes, with many squads, coaches, and athletes – from beginners to Olympians – coming together each Saturday morning at 08:30 to help each other get fitter, faster, and closer to their goals.
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Ferny Creek and The Dandenongs
Famous for its lyrebirds and dominated by mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest flowering plant in the world), Sherbrooke Forest is a wet sclerophyll forest at 220-500 m altitude within the Dandenong Ranges, about 40 km east of Melbourne. Logged from the mid-19th century until 1930, in 1958 it was gazetted as a park and in 1987 it was merged with Doongalla Reserve and Ferntree Gully National Park to form the 32.15 km2 (3215 hectares / 7944 acres) Dandenong Ranges National Park.
One of the most famous training grounds in Australia for middle and long distance runners, Sherbrooke Forest is colloquially called Ferny Creek among the distance running community, although technically it lies in the suburb adjacent. Year-round, most Sunday mornings see from dozens to hundreds of runners make the early-morning pilgrimage to complete their long runs amongst its stunning scenery.
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Lysterfield Lake Park
The location for the 2006 Commonwealth Games Mountain Biking events, Lysterfield Park was established as a public access National Park in 1979 after the decommissioning of the Lysterfield Reservoir (built in 1936). Situated approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Melbourne’s CBD, Lysterfield is adjacent to and connects with Churchill National Park.
One of the most popular mountain biking, running, and hiking locations in the Greater Melbourne region, Lysterfield Park’s 1,398-hectares (3,450-acres) have options for nearly any training session you desire; even sprinting (spikeless), across the deadpan-flat 440m long dam wall.
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