A TASMANIAN company's $2 million investment in the Dandenong Ranges is expected to attract about 50,000 people a year to the region and create 35 local jobs.

Australian Zip Line Canopy Tours won the Parks Victoria tender to build a guided canopy tour facility at the R J Hamer Arboretum in Olinda.

The canopy tour facility, similar to the award-winning Hollybank Treetops in Launceston, features tree-mounted aerial platforms connected with suspension bridges and zip lines.

Australian Zip Line Canopy Tours managing director Peter During said the facility would have a strict sustainability focus and be routed away from existing bushwalk-ing tracks.

"The concept originated 80years ago to help scientists and researchers get around the forests in Costa Rica.

"This is not an adventure ride, it's an interpretive journey where people enjoy the forest from a new perspective - from the top looking down - with a focus on sustainability."

The guided canopy tours will take 3? hours to complete, starting and finishing near existing tracks and access ways to limit development on the forest floor.

Olinda resident and regular walker in the Arboretum, Mark Fergus, is looking forward to the community consultation to help allay resident concerns about the commercial operation restricting local access to the park.

"Most people won't even know we're here," Mr During said. "Visitors attached to a cable with a pulley noiselessly glide from platform to platform one at a time. I can honestly say it's more environmentally friendly than walking through the forest.

"Our biggest drawcard is the environment, the birds and the animals. If we scare the wildlife away, the operation will fail."

Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs Marketing board member and Yarra Ranges councillor Noel Cliff said the guided canopy tours could be a success only if the environment was not damaged in the process.

"Businesses in the Dandenongs are not doing it easy, we need more fresh projects to bring in a new range of people.

"People wanting to come out here and climb trees aren't going to be thrill-seekers, they're going to be people who love the environment."