Dogs in Public Spaces

Walking your dog is valuable exercise for you and your dog. In all public places, except designated off-lead areas, the owner of a dog must keep their dog under effective control.

Effective control means placing a leash, chain, cord or similar not exceeding 1.5 metres in length on a dog and held by the owner. There are also places where you may not take a dog either on or off a lead.

Whitehorse City Council requires dog owners to carry an appropriate receptacle (e.g. bag or scoop) to remove and dispose of their dog’s poo whenever they are with their dog in a public place. You can be fined for not complying.

On this page you will learn about:

Designated Dog Off-Lead Areas
Designated Dog Prohibited Areas
Greyhounds

Public Spaces for Dogs Map

Dog park map

Designated Dog Off-Lead Areas

There are 32 parks and reserves in the City of Whitehorse that have areas where you can exercise your dog off-lead.

Dogs (except for greyhounds) can be exercised off-lead in the areas listed below.

When exercising a dog off-lead, the owner must:

Have the dog under control to sufficiently prevent the dog from behaving in a manner that threatens or causes a nuisance to any person or animal
Carry a leash, chain, cord or similar not exceeding 1.5 metres in length so that the dog can be brought under effective control if it is behaving in a manner that threatens or causes a nuisance to any person or animal
Have the dog within 25 metres and have a clear unobstructed view of the dog at all times; and
The dog immediately returns to its owner upon command.

For more information, read Order 11 Section 26_2 Domestic Animals Act 1994 ( PDF 73.53KB).

Please Note: The dog off-lead provisions do not apply for greyhounds. Greyhounds must be on a fixed lead not longer than 1.5 metres at all times when in a public place including City of Whitehorse designated dog off-lead areas.

If you would like to exercise your greyhound off-lead, one option is the City of Manningham Greyhound Slipping Track.

Designated Dog Off and On-Lead and No Dog Areas

NOTE: For all parks NOT listed below, dogs are required to be walked on-lead.

Park Name	Off Lead Area	On-Lead Area	No Dog Area
Ballyshanassy Park	Yes
Bennettswood Reserve	Yes
Billabong Park	Yes
Boisdale Reserve	Yes
Box Hill City Oval and Bolton Park, Box Hill		Yes	Yes
Bushy Creek Trail West	Yes
Davy Lane	Yes
East Burwood Reserve, Burwood East	Yes	Yes	Yes
Eley Park, Blackburn South	Yes	Yes
Elgar Park, Mont Albert North	Yes		Yes
Eram Park	Yes
Forest Hill Reserve	Yes
Gardiners Creek	Yes
Glen Valley Reserve	Yes
Hagenaur Reserve and Willow Street Park, Box Hill North		Yes	Yes
Holland Gully	Yes
Hunters Knoll	Yes
Junction Road Reserve, Nunawading	Yes
Koonung Creek Trail West	Yes
Koonung Park, Blackburn North	Yes	Yes
Mahoneys Reserve, Forest Hill	Yes		Yes
Masons Retarding Basin	Yes
Mont Albert Reserve	Yes
Morton Park, Blackburn	Yes		Yes
Nicol Park	Yes
RHL Sparks Reserve, Box Hill	Yes		Yes
Simpsons Park	Yes
Slater Reserve, Blackburn North	Yes	Yes
Somers Trail	Yes
Springfield Park, Box Hill North	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surrey Park, Box Hill	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrara Park	Yes
Vermont Recreation Reserve, Vermont		Yes	Yes
Wembley Park and Canterbury-Middleborough Reserve, Box Hill South		Yes	Yes
Whitehorse Reserve, Box Hill	Yes	Yes

Designated Dog Prohibited Areas

There are spaces within City of Whitehorse parks and reserves where dogs are not allowed at any time:

Dog prohibited sports fields
Designated environmentally sensitive wetlands

They are also not allowed within 2.5m of the perimeter of:

Any sports ground, field, court or similar during an organised sporting event
Any children’s playspace
A permanent barbeque or picnic area
The principal location of an organised meeting

Dog Prohibited Sports Fields

The parks and reserves listed below contain sports fields where dogs are not allowed at all. Dogs may be exercised in the areas surrounding these sports fields.

Sport Field Name	No Dog Area
Box Hill City Oval and Bolton Park, Box Hill	Yes
East Burwood Reserve, Burwood East	Yes
Elgar Park, Mont Albert North	Yes
Hagenaur Reserve and Willow Street Park, Box Hill North	Yes
Mahoneys Reserve, Forest Hill	Yes
Morton Park, Blackburn	Yes
RHL Sparks Reserve, Box Hill	Yes
Springfield Park, Box Hill North	Yes
Surrey Park, Box Hill	Yes
Vermont Recreation Reserve, Vermont	Yes
Wembley Park and Canterbury-Middleborough Reserve, Box Hill South	Yes

Designated Environmentally Sensitive Wetlands

Wetlands	Description	Reason
Koonung Creek	Constructed wetlands adjacent to Koonung Creek	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Box Hill Miniature Railway	Fencing already in place to restrict dog access	Protect existing usage
Box Hill Gardens	Ornamental lake in garden setting	Protect the ornamental lake
Surrey Dive	Storm water-fed lake in park setting	Maintain safety around the established picnic area
Kalang Park	Wetland billabongs adjacent to Gardiners Creek	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Blackburn Lake Sanctuary	Melbourne Water retarding structure and wetlands on inlets	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Buckanbe Park	Old farm dam	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Bellbird Dell Reserve	Small wetland on barrelled creek alignment, rock edged vinyl lined ornamental ponds on barrelled creek, constructed water body at bridge	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Morack Billabongs	Billabongs set down adjacent to Morack Public Golf Course and Dandenong Creek	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Yarran Dheran	Ponds on old tip site and at top car park	Maintain and protect significant environmental values
Campbells Croft	Wetland, old billabong chain adjacent to Dandenong Creek	Maintain and protect significant environmental values

Greyhounds

The Manningham Greyhound Slipping Track is a fully fenced dog run available to Whitehorse greyhound owners where greyhounds (and any other breeds) can be legally exercised off-lead and where greyhounds can "free gallop". Greyhounds are a very gentle, loving and placid breed but, due to the fact that they are capable of running at speeds up to 70 km/h, it is both unsafe and illegal to allow them to run off-lead in public places.

The Slipping Track is located in Stintons Reserve, Park Orchards and is provided predominantly for the safe exercise of greyhound racing dogs, retired racers and adopted racers that have come from organisations such as the Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) or the Greyhound Safety Net. It is also available to owners of other breeds who need a safe and fully enclosed area to exercise their dogs.

Most slipping tracks such as this one work on a subscription system where you pay a small fee and are provided with a key to unlock the gate. For more information about the Manningham Greyhound Slipping Track Inc and their prices, email manninghamslippingtrack@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page.

You are here

Public Spaces for Dogs Map

Designated Dog Off-Lead Areas

Designated Dog Prohibited Areas

Greyhounds