Farm’s in Monbulk (The Patch), about an hour-plus drive from the city. Not big overall, but not many people, so you can really go chestnut-crazy freely. Really fun family experience — fun, tasty, and great photos too.
Bella-Vista Farm Address: 50 Camms Rd, The Patch VIC 3792
Price & Entry
No entry ticket needed ($10 gets you all-you-can-eat inside, though probably no one actually wants to bite into raw chestnuts). Taking them home is $6/kg — a bit cheaper than the supermarket and fresher.
What to Bring
Definitely bring thick gloves, wear thick shoes, and ideally cover up with long sleeves and pants — some spots are slippery, and falling straight onto chestnut husks would be really……. The farm provides baskets, but if you can, bring your own bucket too.
Nearby
There are lots of other farms around here too, like persimmon picking, plus the Puffing Billy steam train — you could grab lunch near Belgrave Station on the way. Not far from Mt Dandenong either, if you want to chase the autumn maple leaves too.
What to Do With Your Chestnuts
Once home, rinse the dirt off, boil briefly, cut a cross, then into the oven — easy roasted chestnuts. Plenty of chestnut cake and sugar-roasted chestnut recipes online too if you want to look them up.
Looking for more spots this season? Check our full guide to picking chestnuts in Victoria.
Bella-Vista Farm Chestnut Picking Review | The Patch, Melbourne
Went to Bella-Vista Farm to pick chestnuts on Easter Saturday. Second time going so I had it figured out.
Kids’ gear: rain boots, hat, clip/anti-prick gloves. Picnic mat, drinks, picnic basket. Got a great haul.
$6/kg. No entry fee, cash only — cash only, cash only!
Address: 21 Priors Rd, The Patch VIC 3792 — Bella-Vista Farm chestnut picking 50 Camms Rd, The Patch
Got there just before 10am and there were already five or six cars. This chestnut farm is privately owned, no entry fee, but you need cash when you go pay for weighing — 5.5/kg. It’s just that there are too many people — not recommended to have a big group show up right at the start, in another two days there probably won’t be anything left.
Chestnut-picking gear: rubber gloves, kids can wear rain boots, adults should wear thick shoes so you don’t step on a chestnut husk and get pricked. Bring a hat, chestnuts might fall from the trees. This farm is all downhill — not recommended to bring a pram, hard to push.
Visiting in Late April
We rushed to get to Bella-Vista Farm in The Patch around Anzac Day to pick chestnuts. Felt like the best chestnut-picking season had already passed — basically all picked clean. Two hours and we only found three whole ones, the rest were loose ones (still tasted great though, just roast them in the oven and they’re sweet, especially a couple of trees with a slightly smaller variety, very sweet).
Hazelnuts were actually pretty plentiful, but you can only pick the ones that are very pale in colour. The dark ones are bad or empty inside.
Passed through the little town of Olinda and had a look around — a few vintage shops were nice to browse (mostly reproductions), but wouldn’t recommend going on a public holiday, maybe Anzac Day was a bit special too, a lot of restaurants and cafes weren’t open. Dudley’s was open, but it’s already expensive there, plus an extra 15% surcharge, so we went to another cafe instead — turned out they had no food that day either, just drinks and cakes. In the end we just settled for some fish and chips, queuing to order plus waiting for it to come out took almost an hour.
Suggestion: go a week or two earlier, pick a normal weekend rather than a public holiday to go picking, and have a proper wander around Olinda while you’re at it — it’s only about a 50 minute drive from Melbourne CBD anyway, easily doable there and back in a day
Dog Warning
Checked with the farm — dogs are allowed but must be kept on a leash. The ground is covered in chestnut husks that are like cactus, so you definitely need someone to take the dog to play in an area without chestnut trees, or it’ll get pricked and seriously question its whole existence.
Make sure to keep your furry kids away from the trees.