grants on sherbrooke

After Having lunch with friends as soon as we finished we decided to take a walk down to the shops some of my friends were buying things as soon as we arrived i could not help but notice i know i was standing outside until a cockatoo came on my head.

Cafe staff are focused on serving large groups who arrive in Buses. They were not interested in assisting us, other than "We can make Take Away coffee".Table's are set up for large groups who arrive in Buses.You have to enter/exit via the souvenir shop.

Went with some friends as we had never been there and thought it would be a wonderful experience. It was the worst time ever. The woman running the bird feeding was less than helpful and mentioned that there could be some light scratching but any we got would disappear within an hour. I was swarmed and mauled, blood dripping down my arms (and my scratches have yet to fade nearly a week later). There was only one person working and NO antibacterial wipes as the dispenser was out of order. Luckily I packed hand sanitiser and wet wipes or who knows what infection we would have gotten from the claws. My advice is if you have to go wear long sleeves (even in 40 degree weather) and NEVER take children anywhere near those birds.

I disagree with a few reviews on this place as it is not just made for Tourists, As there are beautiful walking trials that go into the forest where if you are lucky you will spot some Wildlife, A good place to picnic, Plus a place to get to feed Parrots, Rosellas, and other types of Birds. Plus a Cafe to have a bite to eat.They do charge a fee for feeding the birds but if you dont want to pay a fee why not take some bird feed with you and feed them in the picnic area.I came here as part of a day tour with AAT Kings and I went for a walk on a small trail due to lack of time, Plus the feeding of the Birds was discounted to $2.00 when you show that you are with AAT Kings Bus Tour. Which I thought was a great experience and even if they charged me $4.00 I still would recommend it because there are not many places where you can feed wild birds like these, Plus it is not far from the Puffing Billy Train Station.I would recommend giving this place a try !!

very nice place to visit one should go there. Parking places are not much and parking road is narrow please pay attention on it.

Grants Picnic Ground sits within the Sherbrooke Forest, the largest section of Dandenong Ranges National Park. A number of walking tracks, starting from the picnic grounds, enable you to discover some of the plants and animals of Sherbrooke. There is also bird feeding area at Grants Picnic Ground which is a must do! (if you aren't scared of birds)Visitors must purchase a token from ‘Grants on Sherbrooke’ kiosk to enable them to enter the fenced Bird Feeding area and get some seed to be offered to the wild birds. One token costs $4. I visited with two other friends and the three of us shared the one bowl of seed which lasted about 20 minutes before the cockatoos gobbled it all up. This is the only place in the Dandenong ranges which offers bird feeding and is a must for anyone who loves birds and wants an experience. It was so much fun and the birds were so friendly. The birds will land on you and climb over you so this really is a great experience for a bird lover! Please note though that touching of the birds isn't permitted as they can bite (they are wild birds after all) but the birds will land on you and make themselves comfortable so you don't miss out on the experience of getting close. One even came up and gave my a face nuzzle :)

Grants picnic ground is a great place to unwind with a range of walks from 15 minutes to 2 hours from easy to challenging. Cafe and shop at the carpark. Close to Puffing Billy at Belgrave. Barbecue facilities and toilets. Great place to escape and relax with out having to travel too far.

...into tourist money extraction factory. Obviously, overpriced café was not enough, so 4 bucks a piece for a bird feeding entertainment? Why not 60 just to watch? and 90 if you want to get a bit closer? Like they did to penguin watch on Philip Island? Well, I guess it was inevitable. When Ford and Holden closes the car production, the enterprising spirit finds another space to dwell. I am rather sad though that it used to be our space free to roam, have little fun with your children etc, and now it is some faceless government/business entity that rules it all.

I visited this place again, after maybe 3 years of absence.My only reason to go there was always the birds feeding and this is what I am writing this review for.Since my last visit there, they have tried to organize the bird feeding area in a better way (or so they thought) and they built an enclosure whose area is obviously much smaller than the original feeding area, which was huge. That makes the coockatoos rule over the entire feeding area and the poor rosellas and king parrots are too scared to get too close to the food. I'm not whingeing about the price they ask for a tray of seeds which jumped from 1 dollar a bag of seeds a couple of years ago, to 4 dollars now but I thought that is worth to be mentioned.

Living not that far from the Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges, it was with some amusement that we watched the visitors at Grants photographing and feeding the white cockatoos - the very same beasts that have eaten away half the cedar window frames in the hills. That aside, Grants is the starting place for some great rainforest walks that are truly a photographers' treat. Ferns, towering gum trees, fungi and, if you are lucky, the elusive Lyrebird. Unfortunately on this occasion, even though the two of us were cameras at the ready, the Lyrebirds were nary to be seen - except as an emblem for the local hills Shire. Suggest you visit early to avoid the tour buses if you are intending to visit the Grants restaurant and gift shop, but outside the forests are so extensive that it is easy to find a quiet track to walk.

We were driving by and came across this place, the bird feeding of the cockatoos was the main attraction as you can see this as you drive up the road.Very popular, there were many people here and parking was very difficult up a narrow parking road. When we eventually found parking a the top of car park, it was worth the short walk back to see the birds. You are able to virtually hand feed the birds in a small designated area. Food is available for purchase. Very popular with people of all nationalities. The birds are very friendly and obviously used to having so many people around. It was very nice to be able to get up and close to them.Across the road there is a souvenir shop and restaurant/café which was also very popular.In the car park there are several picnic tables and a large area which is covered that families had their barbecues going, cooking alsorts of good smelling food!Very busy and hard to get parking but we are glad we stopped and had a look around.

Stopped here for about a half hour and was entertained by the cockatoo family. Worth a short stop.... Wear a long sleeve shirt!

At grants on sherbrook theres a tasty little cafe and you can get seed and the birds come down and feed straight out of your hand!They sit all over you it was quite the experience.

Ah, you know. It's Grants. It's been an institution for years, and the convoluted and expensive system they've set up for feeding birds (buy a token, feed birds in a very small area, only a certain amount of seed released per day) is better than the chaos that reigned previously, but it also seems to have taken its toll on the price of food in the cafe/restaurant. Bring back the pie and sausage rolls from the days of yore.

What a lovely little cafe with the nicest staff. We went for lunch, they have a got a awesome kids menu for $10.50 the kids get's a main's of fish chips or cheese and marmite sandwiches or nuggets and chips etc and glass of soft drink, an iceream with a little showbag of drawings stickers and crayons, such good value.Me and hubby shared a trio of dips and a vegetarian focaccia which was very nice and plenty of bread and crackers to go with dips what was very nice was the side salds nice and crisp. To drink we had lemon lime and bitters also nice.The cafe is famous for their vanilla slice so brought one to takeway and yes it was stunning.You use to be able to buy bird food for a $1 and feed the wild birds, rosella's and galah's but someone who was obviously bored thought why should the tourist to get to do something free, lets charge them and now they have built a little sheltered area and you now have the privillage of paying $4 each to feed wild birds ( however the feeding area has nothing to do with the cafe they are next to each other)