Sassafras

Sassafras is a locality and township within Greater Melbourne, beyond the Melbourne metropolitan area Urban Growth Boundary, 43 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox and Shire of Yarra Ranges local government areas.

Sassafras is a locality and township within Greater Melbourne, beyond the Melbourne metropolitan area Urban Growth Boundary, 43 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox and Shire of Yarra Ranges local government areas. Sassafras recorded a population of 1,061 at the 2016 Census.

The area was named Sassafras Gully, after the sassafras trees which grow in gully along Sassafras Creek.The land was opened to small scale farming in 1893 and a small township developed. The Post Office opened on 1 June 1901 and has always been known as Sassafras Gully. The Sassafras Primary School was established in 1894, originally meeting in a bark slab hut, before relocating to the Sassafras Mechanics Institute hall in 1895. The school moved to its present site in 1915. In the early 1900s tourism began to increase and the township consequently grew. Today Sassafras is a tourist destination with several boutique stores including Devonshire tea outlets, cafés, toy shops, antique shops and nurseries.

The area has had a history of bushfires, and areas near the town are known to have burnt since the 1850s, most recently in 1962.