Olinda,
Victoria.
The highest village in the Dandenong Ranges. Home to Australia’s National Rhododendron Gardens, Cloudehill, four major botanical gardens — and the final home of Sir Arthur Streeton.
Olinda, Victoria. The definitive guide.
Olinda (postcode 3788) is a town in the Dandenong Ranges, 41 km east of Melbourne CBD, within the Shire of Yarra Ranges. At approximately 500 metres altitude, it is the highest village in the Dandenongs.
The town is defined by the National Rhododendron Gardens (40 ha, 15,000 rhododendrons, free entry), Cloudehill Gardens, William Ricketts Sanctuary, Pirianda Gardens, and the RJ Hamer Arboretum — the densest concentration of significant gardens in Victoria outside the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The median house price was $1,100,000 for the June 2025 quarter (REIV). Sir Arthur Streeton, co-founder of the Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionism, built his final home Longacres in Olinda in 1924 and lived here until his death in 1943.
Fletchers Yarra Ranges: 3/1606 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, Olinda VIC 3788 · 03 9751 0299
Olinda Creek was named in 1858 after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson. The settlement took the creek’s name when it was formally laid out in the mid-1890s — Olinda was the only settlement in the Dandenong hills to be formally laid out, largely due to the efforts of John Dodd who opened the first shop in the main street in 1893.
Postcode 3788 key data:
- 41 km east of Melbourne CBD · Shire of Yarra Ranges
- Population 1,773 (ABS 2021 Census)
- Altitude: Approx. 500 metres — highest village in the Dandenongs
- Median age 45 · predominant age group 60–69
- 85.2% owner-occupied (ABS 2021 Census)
- Transport: Car only — no rail or tram to Olinda village
- Nearest rail: Belgrave Station, approx. 15 min by car
- Area: 17.9 sq km · 23 parks covering 100%+ of area
Fletchers Yarra Ranges: 3/1606 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road · 03 9751 0299
What defines Olinda
The western, forested part of Olinda became a tourist area from the 1890s. After 1910, berry growing was replaced by dairying and cut flowers. Melburnians built weekenders, and later permanent residences. Artists arrived — Streeton, Meldrum, von Guerard — drawn by the altitude, the light, and the views.
That pattern has continued. Olinda’s 85.2% owner-occupancy rate reflects a community of people who chose to be here deliberately. The main strip on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road holds a short run of cafés, galleries, and boutiques that caters to both locals and weekend visitors.
Quick suburb facts
- Postcode 3788 · Yarra RangesDandenong Ranges
- $1,100,000 median house priceREIV June 2025 quarter
- 85.2% Owner-OccupiedTightly held community
- National Rhododendron Gardens40 hectare cool-climate botanical garden
- Sir Arthur StreetonLived at ‘Longacres’ until his death
- Highest Village~500m altitude
Olinda property market. 2026 data.
The median house price in Olinda, Victoria (postcode 3788) is approximately $1,100,000 for the June 2025 quarter (REIV). CoreLogic records the rolling 12-month median at approximately $940,000.
There were 41 house sales in the past 12 months. On average, houses spend 40–54 days on market (CoreLogic 2026). Olinda is an almost entirely house market — unit sales are negligible.
Rental yield for houses is approximately 3.87%, with median weekly house rent at $795. Recent sales have ranged from $875,000 to $1,550,000.
Olinda is not a suburb you buy on momentum. Nobody is flipping Olinda. The buyers I see here have been thinking about it for years — often coming up on weekends, watching properties, understanding what the altitude and the aspect mean. When they finally decide to buy, they’re usually staying for a decade or more.
The supply side of this market is genuinely constrained. The national park wraps the suburb on three sides, heritage overlays cover a significant portion of the township, and the existing lots are not being subdivided. When a property on a north-facing ridge line with a view across the ranges comes to market, there’s no comparable to replace it. That scarcity is structural, not cyclical.
The rental yield of 3.87% is among the highest in the Dandenong Ranges — driven by short-term accommodation and weekend rental demand from Melbourne visitors, as well as the long-term professional tenant pool that rents cottages here.
Four major gardens. No other suburb in Victoria has this.
Olinda holds the National Rhododendron Gardens, Cloudehill, Pirianda Gardens, and the RJ Hamer Arboretum within 2 km of each other. The William Ricketts Sanctuary is just minutes away by car.
A Global Standard in Horticulture
The deep red volcanic clay loam, reliable rainfall, and 500-metre altitude create an environment that supports cool-climate botanical species that struggle elsewhere in Australia. This unique geography allows the gardens here to thrive on a scale that draws international recognition.
From the sweeping vistas of the RJ Hamer Arboretum to the meticulously compartmented garden rooms of Cloudehill, Olinda functions as Victoria’s premier horticultural destination. The National Rhododendron Gardens alone draw thousands in peak spring to witness the bloom of 250,000 daffodils and 15,000 rhododendrons.
The green infrastructure. What makes Olinda famous.
The densest concentration of significant gardens in Victoria outside the Royal Botanic Gardens.
National Rhododendron Gardens
40-hectare cool-climate botanical garden. Founded 1960. Contains 15,000 rhododendrons, 12,000 azaleas, 3,000 camellias, and 250,000 daffodils. Under Parks Victoria management since 1995.
40 ha Est. 1960Cloudehill Gardens
Privately operated garden internationally recognised for its garden rooms threaded through 80-year-old European beech and Himalayan tree rhododendrons. Inspired by English arts and crafts design.
20 garden rooms Nursery on sitePirianda Garden
11-hectare garden on Hacketts Road. Selected in the early 1900s, purchased by the Ansell family in 1959. Features northern hemisphere trees rarely cultivated in Australia.
11 ha Parks VictoriaRJ Hamer Arboretum
Features exotic and native trees including collections of oaks, elms, maples, and conifers. Provides sweeping views across the ranges to the Silvan Reservoir and the Victorian Alps.
120 ha Range viewsWilliam Ricketts Sanctuary
William Ricketts lived here for 59 years, embedding his kiln-fired clay sculptures in the forest landscape. A profound cultural site reflecting Aboriginal spiritual themes. Temporarily closed for restoration.
Est. 1934 Closed 2026Chelsea Australian Garden
The 2013 Chelsea Flower Show gold medal-winning garden, recreated in Olinda featuring an enormous Waratah sculpture, waterfall, and billabong. Located adjacent to the Rhododendron Gardens.
Chelsea gold 2013 15,000+ plantsGetting around. And where Olinda sits.
- By car: Eastern Freeway to Mount Dandenong Tourist Road — 55–65 min to CBD, traffic dependent.
- No direct rail: There is no train or tram to Olinda. The topography makes it impractical.
- Nearest station: Belgrave Station (Belgrave line, direct to Flinders Street) — approx. 15 min by car from Olinda.
- Bus: Yarra Ranges local bus routes connect Olinda to Lilydale and Belgrave.
- Village shops: Main strip on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road offers cafés, galleries, a pub, and specialty food. Not a full-service shopping precinct.
- Supermarkets: Mount Evelyn (15 min) and Belgrave (15 min) for full grocery shopping.
- Bushfire Risk: The Dandenong Ranges are high-risk bushfire environments in summer. Every property purchase requires a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) assessment.
- Single access roads: Several Olinda streets have limited access points, affecting fire planning and insurance.
What Olinda doesn’t advertise about itself.
A village with more layers than its weekend-destination reputation suggests.
Sir Arthur Streeton spent his final 22 years here
Streeton purchased 5 acres in Olinda in 1921 and built Longacres in 1924. The house became the setting for his later paintings. He designed and planted the garden himself and died at Longacres in 1943.
The suburb was named after a surveyor’s daughter
Olinda Creek was named in 1858 after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, the daughter of Clement Hodgkinson, Victoria’s acting Surveyor General. The settlement took the creek’s name.
It was a logging settlement before it was an artists’ colony
European settlers arrived in the 1870s following excision from the Dandenong Forest. Timber was the first industry, transitioning over 60 years to horticulture, dairying, and tourism.
The National Rhododendron Gardens were built after a bushfire
Founded in 1960, a major bushfire in 1962 destroyed most of the early plantings. The society used the cleared ground to expand. The 40-hectare garden that exists today was shaped partly by that fire.
The Heidelberg painters came here as a group
Streeton was not the only Heidelberg School painter here. Eugene von Guerard, Tom Roberts, and Max Meldrum all lived or worked in Olinda, drawn by the altitude and light.
Crime novelist Arthur Upfield based two books here
Arthur Upfield used the Dandenong Ranges as the setting for The Devil’s Step (1946) and An Author Bites the Dust (1948). The topography of Olinda made the area a natural setting for crime fiction.
23 parks cover more than 100% of the suburb’s area
The 17.9-square-kilometre suburb has 23 parks covering over 100% of its total area, meaning parks overlap residential zones. Buildable land in Olinda is genuinely constrained by geography.
William Ricketts lived here until he was 94
Ricketts purchased his plot in 1934. He built his clay figures on site and embedded them in the forest. He lived on the same Olinda site for 59 years until his death in 1993.
Olinda was the only Dandenong settlement formally laid out
The surrounding villages grew organically, but Olinda was formally surveyed and its blocks sold in the mid-1890s. This gave it a commercial concentration the other villages lacked.
The temperature is reliably 5 degrees cooler than Melbourne
At 500 metres altitude, Olinda is approx. 5 degrees cooler than the CBD, with almost twice the rainfall. This specific combination is why the cool-climate botanical gardens are here.
Olinda from forest to artists’ village.
Timber, then horticulture, then tourism, then art. Each decade added something the previous one didn’t remove.
Olinda Creek named
Surveyor Clement Hodgkinson names the local creek after his daughter Alice Olinda Hodgkinson. The area is dense forest.
European settlement begins
Settlers arrive following excision from the Dandenong Forest. Timber is the first industry.
First shop
John Dodd opens the first shop in the main street in 1893, establishing Olinda as a commercial centre.
Guesthouse & Post Office
The first guesthouse opens. By 1906 the township has a post office (opened 1901), a school, and multiple churches.
Tourism grows
Guest house tourism becomes the principal industry as Olinda enters a prosperous period, drawing Melburnians for the cool altitude.
Streeton builds Longacres
Sir Arthur Streeton purchases 5 acres in Olinda and builds Longacres. Olinda becomes the setting for his final works.
William Ricketts arrives
Sculptor William Ricketts purchases his plot on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, where he will live and work for 59 years.
Arthur Upfield visits
Crime novelist Arthur Upfield stays on Mount Dandenong and uses the ranges as the setting for two novels.
Rhododendron Gardens
The Australian Rhododendron Society founds the gardens. A 1962 bushfire destroys early plantings, allowing for expansion to 40 hectares.
Commuter suburb
Olinda transitions into a commuter suburb. Professionals build permanent residences, trading the drive for the lifestyle.
Artists and writers who found Olinda.
Olinda’s artistic history is not a single figure but a cluster — multiple major Australian artists working at the same altitude across the same decades.
Sir Arthur Streeton
Co-founder of the Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionism. Built Longacres in 1924 and died there in 1943. Used Olinda as the setting for his final two decades of paintings.
The Heidelberg painters
Tom Roberts, Max Meldrum, and Eugene von Guerard are among those recorded as living or painting here. The quality of the light at 500 metres drew them as a group.
Peg Maltby and Mary Card
Peg Maltby became one of Australia’s most recognised illustrators of children’s books. Mary Card was a prominent designer of embroidery patterns. Both worked in the Olinda area.
William Ricketts
Sculptor who purchased his Olinda property in 1934. Embedded his kiln-fired clay sculptures in the forest. Died in 1993 at 94 years old, having lived on the same site for 59 years.
Arthur Upfield
Crime novelist and creator of detective Napoleon Bonaparte used the Dandenong Ranges topography as the setting for two novels. The novels remain a crime fiction map of this landscape.
The original settler families
The Coonara area saw fine homes built from the 1880s onward by Melbourne families. Their names survive in street names and property histories, creating deep community roots.
Everything people ask about Olinda.
Every answer is complete, sourced, and matches the FAQPage schema in this page’s header.
The median house price in Olinda, VIC 3788 was $1,100,000 for the June 2025 quarter (REIV via Fletchers). CoreLogic records a rolling 12-month median of approximately $940,000 with 41 house sales. On average, houses spend 40–54 days on market. Olinda is an almost entirely house market — unit sales are negligible. Rental yield for houses is approximately 3.87%, with median weekly rent of $795.
Olinda is 41 km east of Melbourne CBD. By car via the Eastern Freeway and Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, the drive takes approximately 55–65 minutes depending on traffic. There is no direct train or tram service to Olinda. Belgrave Station on the Belgrave line is the nearest rail terminus, approximately 15 minutes by car.
Yes. Sir Arthur Streeton, one of Australia’s most significant painters and a founder of the Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionism, purchased land in Olinda in 1921 and built his home Longacres there in 1924. Longacres became his final and most loved residence. He used Olinda extensively as the setting for his later paintings. He died in 1943.
The National Rhododendron Gardens (also known as the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden) are a 40-hectare cool-climate botanical garden on Georgian Road, 500 metres from Olinda township. Founded in 1960 by the Australian Rhododendron Society, the gardens contain 15,000 rhododendrons, 12,000 azaleas, 3,000 camellias, and 250,000 daffodils. Parks Victoria has managed the gardens since 1995. Entry is free.
Olinda is a tightly held, almost entirely owner-occupied (85.2%) community with a median house price of $1,100,000 (REIV, June 2025). Supply is constrained — 23 parks account for over 100% of the area, meaning buildable land is genuinely limited. Buyers enter Olinda for lifestyle reasons: the gardens, the altitude, and Dandenong Ranges character. The trade-off is car dependency and bushfire risk.
The William Ricketts Sanctuary is a Parks Victoria-managed site on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road. William Ricketts purchased the land in 1934 and made numerous trips to Central Australia to live with Aboriginal people, whose culture inspired his clay sculptures. The sanctuary contains kiln-fired clay sculptures embedded in the forest landscape. As of 2026, the sanctuary is temporarily closed for restoration.
Cloudehill is a privately operated garden at the top of the Dandenong Ranges in Olinda, internationally recognised for its garden rooms — approximately 20 compartments threaded through 80-year-old European beech, magnolias, maples, and Himalayan tree rhododendrons. It features changing sculpture exhibitions and is inspired by English arts and crafts gardens.
Olinda Primary School is the local government primary school. Secondary schooling is accessed in nearby towns — Mount Evelyn Secondary College and Belgrave Heights Christian School are the main options. St Joseph’s College in Ferntree Gully is the nearest Catholic secondary school. The Dandenong Ranges area has a smaller school footprint than the inner eastern corridor, and most families use the school bus network or drive.
Olinda is named after Olinda Creek, which begins in the township. The creek was named in 1858 after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, the daughter of Clement Hodgkinson, Victoria’s acting Surveyor General at the time. The settlement took the creek’s name when it was formally laid out in the mid-1890s.
Olinda is the highest village in the Dandenong Ranges at approximately 500 metres altitude and commands the highest median house price among the ridge-top villages. Its $1,100,000 median (REIV, June 2025) compares to Kalorama at approximately $1,050,000, Sassafras at approximately $950,000, and Mount Dandenong at approximately $1,000,000. Olinda’s premium reflects its concentration of major botanical gardens and its long history as the cultural centre of the Dandenongs.
Olinda and surrounds.
The Dandenong Range villages within Scott Allison’s coverage area.
Thinking of selling in Olinda?
Scott Allison has been selling in Olinda and the Dandenong Ranges for over 20 years. RateMyAgent Victorian and Australian Agent of the Year. Complimentary appraisal, no obligation.
Data sources: REIV via Fletchers (median house price $1,100,000, June 2025 quarter); CoreLogic (12-month median $940,000, 41 house sales, 40-54 days on market, 3.87% yield, 2026); Allhomes (recent sold prices, Nov 2025); ABS 2021 Census (population, demographics, owner-occupancy); Wikipedia, Victorian Places, Aussie Towns, National Rhododendron Gardens history, Australian Garden History Society — Longacres (historical data). Published May 2026 · Last updated 8 May 2026 · fletcherslocal.au/suburb/olinda