Ziebell's Farmhouse Museum and Garden (Thomastown)

Ziebell's Farmhouse Museum and Heritage Garden is the cultural interpretive centre for Westgarthtown.

Ziebell's original farmhouse, barn and other buildings have been been lovingly restored by the City of Whittlesea. They represent the heart of Ziebell's original 102 acre farm, named The Pines, the largest at Westgarthtown. Built between 1851 and 1856, with 61 cm thick stone walls, the house is a typical German farmhouse design. Along with the other surviving buildings - the bath house, smoke house and cart shed - the house represents a German family's hope of a new life. Remaining much as they have been for the past 150 years, the beautifully maintained gardens, provide a rich insight into the lives and interests of the people who lived there. Ziebell's farmhouse and outbuildings are all included on Victoria's Heritage Register.

Ziebell's Farmhouse Museum and Garden (Thomastown)

Ziebell's Farmhouse Museum and Garden (Thomastown)

Westgarthtown is an historic dairy farming settlement sixteen kilometres north of Melbourne established in 1850 by German and Wendish immigrants. Although now located within the residential suburbs of Thomastown and Lalor in the City of Whittlesea, many of Westgarthtown's outstanding bluestone heritage buildings and structures still survive. These include Ziebell's Farmhouse (c.1850-51), Victoria's oldest German immigrant building; a picturesque Lutheran Cemetery (1850); and Australia's oldest operating Lutheran Church (1856).

The Lutheran Reserve site also has these features:

Thomastown Lutheran Church
The oldest operating Lutheran church in Australia, the Thomastown Lutheran Church occupies a commanding position at the centre of the original Westgarthtown settlement's 640 acres. The deliberate placement of the building at the community's centre showed the important part religion played in the lives of the German and Wendish settlers. Dedicated on 17 November 1856, the small unnamed church, with its coursed bluestone walls, gabled iron roof, detailed bargeboards and half-round arch head windows and entry doors, was built at a cost of at least 320 pounds. The church is considered to be of state and national significance and is included on Victoria's Heritage Register. Services are conducted at 2.30pm on the fourth Sunday of each month.

Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery
Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery is a peaceful and remarkable place. Planted with Monterey pines along the northern, western and eastern boundaries, it is surrounded by a drystone wall. The first interment, that of an unnamed still-born child, had taken place by October 1850. Although no burial register for the cemetary survives, over 175 burials are known to have taken place. Today the cemetery remains open for the burial of decendants of those original settlers and members of the Lutheran congregation.

Drystone Walls
Westgarthtown's fencing was made almost entirely of stone. The drystone walls which survive at the Lutheran church reserve, most notably around the cemetery, are the last remnant of an extensive network which once bordered and divided Westgarthtown's neatly laid out dairy farms. The drystone walls on the Lutheran reserve have been restored in recent years, with the involvement of the City of Whittlesea, Parks Victoria, the Friends of Westgarthtown and Reservoir Corrections.

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