Cardinia Reservoir Park

Cardinia Reservoir is a beautiful park to visit with family and friends or on your own.
The walk across the dam is beautiful with stunning views across the water towards Emerald and on the other side over the park.
The facilities are basic and not always well kept.
There are a large number of kangaroos (and kangaroo poo on the grass), so many different types of birds through the forest paths and around the water.
The park is free entry and is immensely popular especially on the weekends so make sure you arrive early to get a car park and picnic spot.
There is also very limited shelter so an umbrella or gazebo would be handy.
Dogs are allowed but must be kept on a leash at all times for their own safety due to the Kangaroos.
Although it is disabled friendly, it's not all that easy to manoeuvre a wheelchair or walker through the whole park.

Great place to go and bird watch, look for Kangaroos or have a picnic. Lack of bins around the playground area resulted in a lot of litter sadly.

Good walking track around the wall of reservoir and after that small walk in the bushes.

Below the reservoir there is a nice open place where we can do picnics as well.

It is such a beautiful lake, surrounded by trees, flowers, and mountains. The lake was gigantic and the water looked crystal clear. I saw many butterflies in the area and I enjoyed the walk along the lake. The lake would be perfect on a sunny day!
There were also few picnic areas nearby, but the public toilets there were quite dirty.

Cardinia Reserve was a lovely place to visit for a morning walk with the family. We took the dog and spent some relaxing time in the picnic grounds. It is well maintained, with toilet facilities and a playground. The paths are accessible. A deer was spotted on the way!

It is a very nice place for family with kids. Access is free and walking along the dam to view the gorgeous view of the 2nd largest reservoir in Melbourne is wonderful.
Below the dam, there is a big picnic area for families. It is usually very busy.
Parking and entry are free, but parking near the picnic area is busy.
A good place for weekly or daily visits depends on how far from your home.
‼️Do not stay close to the water fence for too long, otherwise a drone will be sent to shush you away (don’t even get me start about this).

An absolutely beautiful sight with many things to see. A extremely peaceful place to take your loved ones, irrespective of the weather (maybe excepting torrential floods and thunderstorms), but our visit was on a bit of a gloomy day with some gentle showers, and we were unperturbed and took a short, but intense walk from the top of the dam, all the way to the bottom of the park, and back. Our legs were sore and the cold weather no longer bothered us.
We saw a kangaroo with her joey in her pouch. Just the one, but we didn't expect to see any. She was stunning. She stopped and looked at us curiously for as long as we stared back. After a few minutes she hopped away into the tree line.
This is a very family friendly place, a great place to spend a lazy Sunday with a BBQ and a short walk to burn off those calories, or not. Go and see for yourself if you're in the area.