Open to the public.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945 rapid change occurred all over Melbourne. Returned ex-servicemen as well as thousands of new immigrants displaced after the war meant the city expanded quickly and the outer suburbs grew to accommodate a bigger population. This signified the end of Westgarthtown as a community as the farms were sold to create housing estates. Most of the houses were demolished or became neglected and vandalised.
Today the farmhouses and outbuildings of the Ziebell, Maltzahn, Wuchatsch, Siebel and Graff families, as well as the Lutheran church and cemetery, are all listed as protected on the National Trust Register and the Victorian Heritage Register.
The cemetery and church are historically significant as the only surviving part of land from Westgarthtown that has not been subdivided. The cemetery is also of heritage value due to the Italian Cypress and Monterery Pine trees that are over 100 years old. It is also a fine example of a continuously used settler cemetery as descendants of the original families and current church members can be buried here.
The Ziebell, Maltzahn, Wuchatsch, Siebel and Graff families are all interred here, the final resting place of a once vibrant German immigrant settlement.
Figure 1. Author's own image
