The Bellarine Rail Trail is a 32 km walking and cycling track on the

Bellarine Peninsula The Bellarine Peninsula ( Wathawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together with the Mornington ...

, in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

, that follows the route of the former

South Geelong South Geelong, also referred to as Geelong South, is a southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Its local government area is the City of Greater Geelong. At the 2016 census, South Geelong had a population of 993. The suburb is adj ...

to Queenscliff branch line. It runs from

to Queenscliff, passing through the towns of

Leopold Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

Curlewis Curlewis may refer to : * Curlewis, New South Wales, Australia, in the New England region * Curlewis, Victoria, Australia, a suburb of Geelong * 3898 Curlewis, a minor planet People with the surname Curlewis * Adrian Curlewis (1901–1985), Austral ...

and Drysdale. The rails have been removed from the western section between South Geelong and Drysdale. Sections of the rail trail between South Geelong Station and the Bellarine Highway, and Melaluka Rd, through Leopold and Curlewis to Drysdale are sealed to provide a quality surface in high traffic areas. the surrounding reserves feature areas of remnant, indigenous vegetation, creating an interesting, safe and tranquil environment for users. The

Bellarine Railway The Bellarine Railway, formerly the Bellarine Peninsula Railway, is a volunteer-operated steam-driven tourist railway located in Victoria, Australia. It operates on a 16 km section of a formerly disused branch line on the Bellarine Penin ...

operates a

tourist railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

between Drysdale and Queenscliff, and the walking track runs parallel to the railway in this 16 km eastern section. The route traverses

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...

with scattered patches and strips of native vegetation, mainly

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

References

*''Bike rides around Melbourne'' 3rd edition, 2009, Julia Blunden, Open Spaces Publishing, *

External links

Bellarine Rail Trail - City of Greater Geelong

Friends of the Bellarine Rail Trail

Railtrails Australia: Bellarine Rail Trail

Using the Bellarine Rail Trail as part of a weekend adventure
Rail trails in Victoria (Australia) Hiking and bushwalking tracks in Victoria (Australia) Bellarine Peninsula Borough of Queenscliffe {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub

See also

References

External links