The Book of the Dandenongs

In this well-researched book there are meaningful passages on the forests as they once were, before being cleared for settlement and farmland; the conservationists’ pleas for the cessation of felling; the drama and the terror of rampaging bushfires along the ridges and in the valleys; the stately homes of the wealthy, the modest homes of the urban dwellers, the primitive huts of the early arrivals. The book takes the reader from timber felling – with bullocks hauling the logs from the forests – to the famous ‘little train’ Puffing Billy to modern vehicles transporting a variety of products from the lush market gardens and tulips farms of today.