VICRail & telegraph
Belgrave
A mountain railway stop that grew into the ‘Queen township of the Dandenongs’.
1900Narrow-gauge railway opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Farms were hewn from heavily timbered slopes from 1879, but the town grew around a station on the narrow-gauge line from Upper Fern Tree Gully to Gembrook, opened in 1900. The station was first called Monbulk and renamed Belgrave in 1904.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By 1920 Belgrave was a resort with guesthouses and cafes serving visitors to the forest. The narrow-gauge line closed in 1958, broad-gauge electric trains arrived in 1962, and volunteers reopened the old line as Puffing Billy the same year.
TURNING POINTS
1900The narrow-gauge line to Gembrook opens on 18 December, with a station at Monbulk.
1904The railway commissioners rename Monbulk station Belgrave.
1920Belgrave has seven guesthouses and four cafes or coffee palaces.
1962Electric trains reach Belgrave and Puffing Billy reopens.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A hills township of tree-covered slopes and a curving main street, best known as the starting point of the Puffing Billy railway.