Lying north of the town are the power stations of Moe, Yallourn and Traralgon

Mirboo North
Small rural centre in a rich dairy area.
The area around Mirboo North, 153 km south-east of Melbourne via the Princes Highway, was first traversed by explorer, Paul Strzelecki, in 1840. However, it was not until the 1880s that settlers in search of new land moved south into the area. The plentiful forests of mountain ash proved too tempting a natural resource to ignore and logging soon became a staple industry.

Today, Mirboo North is a small settlement which relies upon dairying, and the cultivation of potatoes, maize and onions. You can play golf or tennis, fish for trout and blackfish, or visit the Grand Ridge brewery.

Things to see:  

Grand Ridge Brewery
Grand Ridge brewery (previously known as the Strzelecki brewery) was created out of the redevelopment of the Mirboo North Butter Factory. It includes a bar overlooking the production process as well as a restaurant with live music on weekends, ranging from jazz to classical, a coffee shop, a craft market and an art gallery.

Lyrebird Forest Reserve and Grand Ridge Road
However, the principal interest is in the picturesque fern gullies, farmlands and bushland reserves around the township, which lies on the scenically impressive Grand Ridge Road. The Lyrebird Forest Reserve, 2.8 km north on the Thorpdale Road, possesses a 4.8-km loop track which winds from the picnic area along the Little Morwell River, through forests of stringy-barks, grey gum, banksia and king-fern, which are home to lyrebirds, crimson rosellas and yellow-tailed black cockatoos.

Dickies Hill Reserve Lookout and Mt Worth State Park
For a scenic drive, follow Old Thorpdale Road out of town, turn left at Dickies Hill Road and stop at the lookout at Dickies Hill Reserve. In late spring, the purple and gold Mirboo Lily, the town's floral emblem, blooms at the reserve and and in the general area. To visit the fern gullies, the wallabies, wombats, echidnas and lyrebirds of Hallston Bush, continue along Dickies Hill Road and turn right into Grand Ridge Road. Head towards Hallston and turn off at Forresters Road. If you continue along Grand Ridge Road, you will reach Mt Worth State Park. Some pioneers' graves can be found in a small hillside cemetery at Allambie South, seven kilometres east of Hallston.

Boolarra
14 km east of Mirboo North on the northern slopes of the Strzelecki Ranges is Boolarra, a word which is thought to be Aboriginal for "plenty". During his exploration of Gippsland in 1840, Paul Strzelecki abandoned his equipment here and journeyed west towards Western Port. However, the area was not settled until free selectors took up land in the 1870s. In his later years, poet, John Neilson, father of John Shaw Neilson, bought a block of land in the bush around the town in 1922. His son recalled it as "very rough country...swarming with rabbits". Fiction writers, Peter Corris and Jean Bedford, poet, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and his painter-novelist brother, Robin, lived in the area or wrote about it in the 1970s. The latter's novel, Feral Palit (1978), describes the backwoods formerly occupied by the area's hillside farmers.

Mirboo River Pony Trail and Turtons Creek
21 km south-east of Mirboo North, just past Mirboo East, is the scenic 20-km Mirboo River Pony Trail which follows the Morwell River through forests and past waterfalls. Further south, off Turtons Creek Road, are the Turtons Creek walking tracks, where you can pan for gold in creeks and gullies that yielded the precious metal in the 1880s. The Tarra Bulga and Morwell National Parks are also in the general area. For those who wish to stick closer to the township, take the Old Railway Line Walk along the old Mirboo-Morwell track.

	Hotels
	Commercial Hotel 70 Ridgeway Rd Mirboo North VIC 3871 Telephone: (03) 5668 1552 Rating: **
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	Strathmore Cottage Bed & Breakfast Mardan Rd Mirboo North VIC 3871 Telephone: (03) 5668 1571 Rating: ***
	Cottages & Cabins
	Campbell Homestead Cottage RMB 5620 Twomeys Rd Mardan 3871 Mirboo North VIC 3871 Telephone: (03) 5664 1282 Rating: ***
	Restaurants
	Brewery Restaurant Main St Mirboo North VIC 3871 Telephone: (03) 5668 1647
	Mirboo North Chinese Restaurant 76 Ridgway Rd Mirboo North VIC 3871 Telephone: (03) 5668 1536