In August 1872 3r 2p sold to NW Keanan for £13.15s and 1r 38p to G Pacholke for £3.4s near the Roman Catholic Church site of 2 acres on the east side of Germantown (now Torquay) Road. These blocks were just south of Waurn Ponds Creek | Grovedale Recreation Reserve consists of about 15 acres between Perrett Street and Reserve Road. It has a cricket area that converts to two soccer pitches. The Grovedale United Services Memorial Hall is in the north western section (allotment 1). It was built in 1949 as a tribute to the men and women of the district who had served their country. In the 1960s a baby health centre which was built to the east of the hall was open on Tuesday mornings. This was demolished 1970 when the kindergarten was built in Heyers Road, west of the shops. The block below marked "Reserve" contained the scout hall with a large quarry behind it which was in the process of being filled in the 1960s. The boundaries of the blocks fronting the east side of Torquay Road were shifted back in the 1960s to allow for the widening of the road. 2 acres was reserved for Wesleyan and Lutheran churches adjoining the reserve in Torquay Road and a Roman Catholic church not far south of Waurn Ponds Creek also in Torquay Road. The first Lutheran church which was made of mud walls with a grass roof, was built in 1854 next to the cemetery in Church Street on land donated by Samuel Roehr. The first church service, conducted by Pastor Matthias Goethe, was held on 24 June 1854. This building was also used as a school which was the first Lutheran school in Victoria. The first teacher was Mr Stanger from 1854 to 1858. Robert Renzow was the next teacher. In 1868 a new school number 283 was erected in Bailey Street on land donated by Robert Renzow. A new stone church, named Holy Trinity, was built on the east side of Torquay Road (allotment 6) in 1859 and dedicated on 26 December. A manse had been built in 1855. This Lutheran church had closed by 1949 and was being used by a mechanic as a garage until the 1970s when shops were built on the site. Used cars were once sold at the garage. A rift occurred in the congregation and another Lutheran church, St Paul's, was built and decicated in March 1871 on the west side of Torquay Road. George Heyer was the pastor. The road near the church was named after him. |
In 1855 the Wesleyans were the first denomination to build a church at Grovedale. It was replaced by a church built in 1869 on the corner of Torquay and Reserve Roads. It became a Methodist church on 1 January 1902 when the Primitive Methodists, the Wesleyans and the Bible Christians united to form the Methodist Church of Australasia. The name on the headstone was changed in 1917. It was built of bluestone from Mount Duneed and the freestone from Benjamin Holdsworth's quarry on the Colac Road at Waurn Ponds. The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor of Geelong, Thomas N Couves, in the presence of about fifty spectators. The ceremony took place on the afternoon of 25 March 1869 about 5pm. Rev James Bickford led the proceedings and concluded by the singing of the doxology. A tea meeting followed. Before the Sunday School was built tea meetings were held in a large tent with tan bark strewn over the floor. The architect of the 1969 church was Robert Smith Tuffs, a surveyor who lived in the Grovedale area. He was on the first council of the Shire of South Barwon, serving from 1957 to 1860 and the first engineer of the shire from 1861 to 1890. The timber buildings at the rear of the church were demolished to make way for a new brick building. |