Our thirty-first walk begins right at the centre of the Burwood Village, at the corner of Burwood Highway (Toorak Road) and Warrigal Road (60 H6). This walk is approximately 6km. At the time of writing, masks are compulsory for public transport, and we return to Burwood on a tram, so do remember to bring a mask with you.
We start at the NW corner of the Toorak Road/ Warrigal Road intersection, and walk north along the western side of Warrigal Road, where we pass a car park (with a public toilet). We are technically in Camberwell, but, as we walk along, this enables us to have a better view of Burwood across the road to our right. As usual, the housing is a mix of brick and weatherboard homes, and mature trees. We also pass Emmaus College and St Benedict’s Church, and typical Burwood streets such as Wallace Road. There is obvious redevelopment taking place, typical of suburbs in this area. We cross a number of roads, reaching the lush grounds of Wattle Park Primary School. The walking is easy (if a little noisy from traffic). As we pass Cameron Close Retirement Village, we can see one of the major parks in Burwood (Wattle Park), here fenced off from us for a golf course.
On our left there is a long row of posts signalling the wonderful Cooper Reserve (60 H3), with some enormous eucalypts, a number of seats, drinking water, a toilet and great outlooks. Even aeroplane spotters may be successful. This is a good place, and very close to Burwood, to take a break before moving on to Wattle Park.
Return to Warrigal Road, and continue north to the traffic lights at the corner of Riversdale Road. Cross Warrigal Road here, and enter Wattle Park at one of the beautiful “gatehouses” which have basalt bricks and an ancient tiled roof. Here you will also join a gravelled path, which winds its way to the east. We cross a bridge in about 10 minutes (path WAT 500) and you can design your own route through this park, but I recommend that you stay roughly parallel to Riversdale Road (but not too close to it). After 10 minutes or so, you can visit the chalet, the two old trams, the Lone Pine Circle monument, and a tennis court. There are toilets here too. I took a short break near the monument to look at this great park. From here, you can walk closer to the trams.
Head back towards Riversdale Road, passing some artwork, and return to the gravel path (WAT 505) running almost parallel to Riversdale Road and passing by a small wetland area. We then reach the tram route 70 terminus (operating trams!) at Wattle Park Shopping Centre. At this corner (but still inside the park), we take another well-defined gravel path now heading south, not far from Elgar Road (not nearly as noisy as Warrigal Road). In about five minutes, we pass the fenced “Wattle Park Conservation Area”, and look out for a bus stop on Elgar Road where our track changes to heading west. Do not take this track, but looking across Elgar Road, you will see Cadorna Street (61 A4). At this point, you can choose simply to walk south along Elgar Road to Tram Stop 62.
Alternatively, once you reach the entrance of Deakin University (which has traffic lights), walk in an easterly direction through their grounds for 10 minutes, until you see a pedestrian crossing (with a help phone) which will take you south to the Gardiners Creek Trail. (Do not cross the creek.) This trail will take you to Burwood Highway, where you can turn right, to Tram Stop 62 (passing “Hungry Jacks”). The city bound tram – route 75 to Etihad Stadium Docklands – will return you from the south side of Burwood Highway to Burwood Village, tram stop 58.
These current walks trace the boundary of the Burwood postcode – 3125. Many postcodes have very obvious boundaries. For example, Mount Waverley (3149) is a rectangle of 4 roads – Highbury, Blackburn, Ferntree Gully and Huntingdale Roads. However, Burwood is more complex. So, I thought that we could walk (as nearly as convenient) where Burwood’s boundary is in fact located. There have been some challenges to this plan, such as many intersecting tracks, and the overall length of the walks. So this walk will be the second section of the 3125 walk, and the third walk will cover the Eastern section of Burwood (not to be confused with Burwood East 3151). This walk covers the “rectangle” bounded by Burwood Highway, Warrigal, Riversdale, and Elgar Roads. The walk is covered well by parts of Melway maps 60 and 61. (I used the 2021 edition of these maps.)
