Black Spur Drive

The Black Spur is the stretch of the Maroondah Highway between Healesville and Narbethong in the Yarra Ranges, east of Melbourne, Victoria. Visit Victoria gives the drive as 27.9 km from Healesville.

The road climbs the Great Dividing Range through tall mountain ash forest with an understorey of tree ferns, beside and through the Yarra Ranges National Park. Parks Victoria calls it world famous, and it is the main road from the Yarra Valley to Marysville.

The park around it is home to around 40 native mammals and 120 native bird species, including lyrebirds, king parrots, crimson rosellas and wallabies, and is thought to be one of the last strongholds of the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum.

• From Healesville the highway passes Fernshaw picnic area at the base of the Black Spur, then winds up through mountain ash forest towards Narbethong.
• The mountain ash tower over the road, with cool tree fern gullies below.
• Dom Dom Saddle picnic area sits on the Black Spur beside the highway.
• Short walks from the picnic areas lead into rainforest where lyrebirds, king parrots and wallabies are often seen.
• In autumn the trees around Healesville turn colour, and Parks Victoria says spring is when the rainforest along the Black Spur is at its lushest.
• From Narbethong the road carries on to Marysville and the Lady Talbot Forest Drive.
• Best way to experience it: drive or ride it yourself, in your own vehicle or a hire car, or join one of the guided tours that run on it.

• The Black Spur closes after storms when trees come down. VicRoads lists road closures at traffic.vicroads.vic.gov.au.
• Fernshaw picnic area at the base of the Black Spur has toilets. The toilets at Dom Dom Saddle picnic area are permanently closed.
• Parks Victoria advises checking the bushfire danger rating before visiting the forest in summer.
• Healesville sits at the south end and Narbethong at the north end, with Marysville beyond.

• Last verified: 8 November 2026
• Official link: https://www.visitmelbourne.com/regions/yarra-valley-and-dandenong-ranges/see-and-do/road-trips-and-itineraries/black-spur-drive