Sassafras

Sassafras is a small historic village in the Dandenong Ranges, within the Shire of Yarra Ranges, Victoria, about 43 km east of Melbourne. Set among mountain ash forest and fern gullies at around 500 metres elevation, it is known as a Dandenongs hill-station destination. The village centre along Mount Dandenong Tourist Road features tea rooms, antique and craft shops, galleries and cafes, surrounded by Sherbrooke Forest and Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Visitors can expect a compact village strip along Mount Dandenong Tourist Road lined with English-style tea rooms, cafes, antique shops, craft and homeware stores, and art galleries. The village is set within tall mountain ash forest and tree-fern gullies of the Dandenong Ranges. Surrounding areas offer forest walks in Sherbrooke Forest and Dandenong Ranges National Park, with opportunities for nature viewing, photography and short bushwalks. The atmosphere is that of a historic mountain tourist village serving day visitors from Melbourne.

Sassafras developed from the 1890s as a hill-station and tourist village in the Dandenong Ranges, named after southern sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum) trees common in the local cool temperate rainforest. Early guesthouses and tea rooms catered to visitors escaping Melbourne, and the village grew along the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road as part of the broader Dandenongs tourism and forestry settlement.

Sassafras is recognised as a characteristic Dandenong Ranges tourist village known for its English tea-room culture, antique and craft shopping, and arts and galleries. It forms part of the cultural landscape of the Dandenongs as a long-established day-trip and weekend destination for Melburnians, set within Sherbrooke Forest and Dandenong Ranges National Park.