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Bible Christian Church, Mount Moriac

31/8/2017

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J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria
The Bible Christian Ebenezer Chapel, Sandlands Road (now Hendy Main Road), Mount Moriac was opened with a service on Christmas Day 1856. This was followed by a tea provided by the ladies at 5pm. The cost of the 24 x 18 feet building was £190 of which £120 had already been raised. The tea  raised an extra £30. It was built on the west side of Hendy Main Road, north of Colac Road.

On 24 August 1869 church services were disrupted by six lads between the age of twelve and fifteen years who threw rotten eggs and stones at worshippers and into the church. John Argus, who was attending the meeting was struck by a rotten egg.
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Wellington

26/7/2017

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John Rout Hopkins by Edward Gilks
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Wellington is another long lost Settlement in the parish of Duneed. Maybe it never became a township as very little is known of it. From accounts at the time it seems to be situated near the junction of Drewry Lane, Cape Otway, Hunts and Mount Duneed Roads.
The first mention of Wellington was in the published diary of Rev James Bickford. He visited the area in January 1856 to find out if the residents of the district wanted a Wesleyan church. Services were held in the home of the Dow family until John Rout Hopkins offered land for the church to be built. This was conditional on it being built of brick or stone. Hopkins was married to Eliza, daughter of George Armytage who owned many blocks in this area. In July 1867 Rev Bickford again visited the area to select land for the church. The foundation stone for the church was laid in April 1868 and the first service was held later that year. Rev Bickford officiated at the opening service.
​In 1871 a petition was presented to Council to have the road grubbed and cleared from the chapel to Thomsons Creek.
​The last known reference to Wellington was in the council minuted in 1899. ​
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Rev James Bickford — State Library of SA
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St Cuthbert's Church of England, Marshall

1/1/2017

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St Cuthbert's Church of England, built in 1911, was situated between the two cypresses on the Marshall Reserve in Marshalltown Road. It was built beside an old church which had originally been used also as a school. The old church was replaced by a Sunday School in 1922. When the congregation moved to Heyers Road, Grovedale the old church was moved to Cobbin Farm in Grove Road, Grovedale where it is often used for weddings.
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The 2 acre church block on the corner of Horseshoe Bend and Marshalltown Roads
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Some of the church land was taken with the upgrading of Barwon Heads Road in the 1930s
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These beautiful leadlight windows are at the back of the church
A grand meadow fete was held in 1899 to procure funds to renovate the interior of the old church and to build a chancel if possible. By all reports in the Geelong Advertiser the fete was a huge success. A profit of £83 6s 5d was made. In appreciation of the hard work of the ladies, the church committee invited them to a  picnic. By 1901 the advertisement for another meadow fete to be held was in aid of the new church building fund. For a number of years, before and after 1911, fetes and tea meetings were held to raise further funds. In 1913 it was a wisteria fete where the interior was decorated with wisteria which gave a dainty and pleasing effect. The new church was dedicated by the Archbishop of Melbourne on 10 June 1911. Councillors and officers of the Shire of South Barwon were invited to attend. In 1916, after the debt on the church had been paid, the proceeds of the fete went towards gas lighting in the church. In 1917 two honour rolls were unveiled. Parishioners, relatives and friends of those whose names were on the boards attended the church for the service on Sunday evening 15 March. There was a parade of the Young Men's Club, whose roll contained 18 names of members who had enlisted.
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from Geelong Advertiser 14 October 1899
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from Geelong Advertiser 3 June 1911
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St Patrick's Church Mount Moriac

21/12/2016

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PictureThe church before rebuilding
In 1952 working bees were held to clear away the stone from the original church that had been erected in 1860. As the old church was unsafe after the recent storm damage it was decided to rebuild the new church on the foundations of the old church. Built of Mount Gambier limestone, the cost was £5000. The old steeple was incorporated into the new design. It was hoped to find records of the laying of the foundation-stone (31 October 1858) in a bottle inserted into one of the stones, but this did not happen. 

The new church was not as large as the old one which had beautifully carved doors and windows. When it was erected in the early 1860s there was also a presbytery and school. It had been built to serve a much larger population. The Mount Moriac country was once thickly populated. Evidence of this could be seen from the number of deserted and decaying houses fifty years ago. The blocks were relatively small and as families grew the settlers found they could not make ends meet. These farmers often shifted to remote areas where blocks were larger such as in the Wimmera.
​A large proportion of the earliest settlers in Mount Moriac were Catholic and as this was the only Catholic church between Geelong and Colac parishoners flocked to it. It was reported that the stone used in the construction of the first church was faulty, and on many occasions the church had to be repaired. In 1869 the walls, erected at a cost of £4,500, were cracking and needed a large amount of money to make them secure. This damage was caused by the loose manner in which the foundation was put in. Alterations were again carried out in 1887. Damage to the church in that year included broken slates, and the destruction of the large stained glass western window which was shattered by a furious hailstorm. ​In 1929 leadlight windows were broken by someone throwing stones. 

​In February 2017 more than 200 people watched at the auction when the property was sold for $605,000 to a local buyer.  

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Bible Christian Chapel, Modewarre

23/11/2016

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The former Bible Christian Siloam Chapel built in 1858 in Considines Road Modewarre, is the earliest known Bible Christian Chapel in Victoria, and only one of three known surviving former Bible Christian Chapels in the state. The Bible Christian Church was brought to South Australia through emigrant Cornish miners, and soon spread to Victoria. The Modewarre church became a centre for temperance lectures in the district with speakers from the Geelong Band of Hope. 1 January 1902 saw the re union of the five separate and competing sections of the Methodist Church throughout the Commonwealth of Australia. The parent body, the Wesleyan Methodists were joined with the Primitive Methodists, United Methodist Free Churches, Bible Christians and the New Connexion to form "The Methodist Church of Australasia".

The Band of Hope was founded in United Kingdom in 1847 and established in Australia by 1860 during a time when excessive drinking among adults was common, adding to the problems of poor living conditions and health, and maltreatment of children and child mortality. Alcohol was freely available to children. The organisation had a policy of education particularly with the young. Many Bands of Hope were associated with Churches and Sunday Schools. The Band of Hope targeted children of parents who wanted their children to be educated and have a secure future. It was seen by many adults as a way to develop self-reliant working men who could use temperance as a route to self improvement.

To encourage children to join and remain members, groups held annual outings, tea meetings, offered music lessons, established orchestras and produced newspapers whose content promoted temperance. Meetings began with a temperance hymn, prayers and the chairman's speech, this was followed by music, recitations, readings and pledge signing.

Queen Victoria became patron in 1897, the Jubilee year, and several celebrations were held. In some ways it could be said that the success of the Band of Hope caused its own decline. As alcohol misuse became less of a problem and as legislation improved there seemed to be less need to work so fervently in this area.

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Band of Hope members card 1870
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Walter Burville

1/10/2016

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Walter Burville was born in Whites Road in 1871. His parents were John and Mary Ann (née Radford) Burvill. The spelling of the name changed from Burvill to Burville in this generation. He purchased part of Armstrong's station and old homestead and took his bride Sarah née Barlow, to live there. The aboriginals were living near Armstrong's Creek and often called at the homestead for food and tobacco. The old property was bought to become the cemetery and crematorium for the Geelong district. He took an active part in activities of the Grovedale Methodist Church. He was secretary of the Sunday School from July 1892 until 1899 when he became superintendent, a position he held until his death in November 1946, at the age of 75 years. He served for a total of forty seven years. He was a trustee of the church and proposed the following scheme in 1922 to raise £1,000 to go towards the erection of a new and larger church:
​"That 20 acres of peas be planted each year for 10 years to yield on average 7 bags per acre. These 140 bags could be sold at 5/- per bushel to yield £105. Threshing and manure costs per annum £20. £85 net return per year with compound interest would in ten years yield £1,000." This money was raised and stayed in the building fund for decades.

His wife Sarah was an organist in the church for over forty years. The Ladies' Guild donated a new pulpit in her memory after her death in July 1952 at the age of 83 years 11 months.

His sister Alice, born 1873, was a Sunday School teacher and treasurer. She married August Hartwich and had two daughters and three sons. She died on 10 September 1958 at the age of 84 years. They are buried at the Geelong Eastern Cemetery. The name Hartwich was changed to Hartwick, probably about the time of WW1.

​His son Harry became a Sunday School teacher in December 1929 and took over as superintendent at the end of 1946. He stayed in this position until July 1956 when he went to Bellbrae to help with their Sunday School. He became a trustee at Grovedale Methodist Church on 30 March 1933, serving for many years. He sang in the choir for many years and is remembered for his lovely tenor voice. He died in December 1974 at the age of 66. Harry and his wife Eunice lived on their dairy farm in Burvilles Road. Harry's schooling was in Mount Duneed. In later years they built on the corner of Whites and Torquay Roads. Their four children attended Mount Duneed School. Eunice died on 7 January 2011 at the age of 96 years.
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Walter's grandmother had a millinery business in Geelong for many years trading under the name of "Burwell".

​John Burvill bought the land on the corner of Torquay Road and Whites Road in 1854. He and his wife had three sons and five daughters. He was a  teacher and superintendent of the Grovedale Methodist Sunday School for thirty-six years. Fourteen acres of this land was sold to Robert Broughton in 1876.

​Mr L Burville was president of the Grovedale Methodist Cricket Club which was formed in 1933 in the Geelong and District Churches Association. On two occasions it reached the final series.
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The Burville family were of French descent. They have been traced back to France to about 1600 when the family name was "de Burville".  As Hugenots, they fled to England for religious and political reasons where they settled in Kent. In the 1850s members of the family migrated to Australia. Burvilles Road, Mount Duneed is named after the Burville family who lived along the road, and remained there until relatively recently. The earliest member was probably John Burvill. Later Walter Burville lived there.
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Section XX Allotment C — Whites Road west of Torquay Road and south of Armstrong Creek.
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Harry Burville's wife Eunice née Bieske — contributed by Tracey Staynes
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The Clement Nash headstone of Mary Ann and John Burvill and his mother Eliza Andrews in the Methodist section of Mount Duneed Cemetery
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Grovedale Recreation Reserve

12/8/2016

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An early map dated 1855 shows a park and reserve of 36 acres. In the north east corner of the reserve a block is reserved for a cemetery. In April 1863 the South Barwon Council wrote to the president of the Board of Land and Works to oppose the establishment of a cemetery in this location. The area had a Lutheran cemetery and most of the residents were of this faith.

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​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.

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On 23 August 1904 the last sale of Crown land in Grovedale was held. JE Andressen (allotments 3 – £230, 4 – £150, 5 – £145) and G Schultze (allotment 6 – £30) were the buyers. The remaining 15 acres was reserved for park and recreation purposes

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J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria
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from Geelong Advertiser 26 March 1869
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.
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Clifford

15/6/2016

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Clifford had a blacksmith, hotel, church/school, post office and store.

It took its name from Lawrence Trewin’s Clifford farm on the corner of Colac, Devon and Cape Otway Roads. He moved to Echuca in 1875.

A store was run by Herbert Cotton, who also ran a licensed store and hotel in Russell Street, Chilwell. He married Elizabeth Trewin in 1862 and had 9 talented children who entertained with singing and dancing and playing two violins, a cornet, a piccolo and a piano.

​Stephen Sleator was the next licensee. He also ran the Argyle hotel on the corner of Aberdeen and Coronation Streets. He also ran the store at Clifford. He moved to the Wimmera in 1876.

​Trewin then called tenders for the lease of the store and hotel for three to five years. James Gorell, who owned a business at 517 Moorabool Street, South Geelong, was the successful tenderer. The hotel was destroyed by fire in May 1877. Although both Trewin and Gorell were insured, the hotel did not re open, probably because of the declining population in this area. Subsequent generations of the Gorell family have been successful businessmen in Geelong.
The post office, which was originally named Amblerton, opened on 17 September 1868, was renamed Clifford on 1 October 1868 and closed on 28 May 1877.
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​A blacksmith, John Murray, operated in the early 1870s. His advertisements appeared in the Geelong Advertiser from 1871-74.

A Church of England school was established on 15 August, 1853, with John A Boyd as its first teacher and an attendance of 21. Its name was Colac Road but was changed in 1856 to Duneed. It became Common School No 187 in 1869 when it had 42 pupils. The name was changed again in 1871 to Clifford. It closed on 18 August, 1875. Arthur Streeton's father, Charles, was school teacher at this school from 1 August 1865 to 13 June 1869. Arthur was born at the school house.
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The settlement of Clifford was at the corner of Colac, Devon and Cape Otway Roads. Lawrence Trewin purchased the land originally owned by John Kiddle after his death in 1852
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Pettavel, Clifford and Wellington

25/3/2016

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PictureThese blocks along the Princes Highway were first sold in 1840
The many motorists who drive towards Mount Moriac on the Princes Highway would probably not guess that a settlement near the corner of Cape Otway Road and Devon Roads was a very busy little centre in the nineteenth century. The long climb up the hill from Waurn Ponds made a natural spot for weary travellers and their horses to take a rest. Numerous wagons and vehicles obstructing the road outside the Clifford Hotel drew the attention of the Moriac police who were eager to get rid of "this nuisance".

​Further down Cape Otway Road a Wesleyan church at Wellington was active for about fifty years.

​To the east a number of buildings in Pettavel Road bore the name Pettavel including a railway station, which was a great asset to the district, a school and a church.

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The ruins of the Pettavel Presbyterian Church on the north east corner of Mount Duneed and Pettavel Roads
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J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria
The church had been used as a hayshed before an arsonist set it alight on 19th December 1972. The fire could not be extinguished without dismantling the building. This took all day. The police kept watch and late in the day the culprit turned up and was apprehended.
Pettavel
The Pettavel Murder
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A Trail of Destruction

2/12/2015

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On 15 January 1944 Mount Duneed suffered devastating losses when a fire swept through the area.
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After the fires had burnt themselves out linesmen came to restore telephone lines which were destroyed for a considerable distance on the Geelong-Torquay Road

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This photo of the remains of St Wilfrid's Church of England, built in 1863, on the corner of Lower Duneed and Torquay Roads after the fire, was taken by Rev Alexander James Stewart, who was born at "Dooliebeal", on what is now Stewarts Road in 1876. He died in 1961
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St Wilfrid's before the fire — used as a school until the state school was built. Established as Bream Creek School No 107 on 1 June 1862, the name was changed to Mount Duneed in 1865.
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St Wilfrid's Church was rebuilt in 1944 by the boys of the Geelong Grammar School under the direction of Mr H Kirwood. The architect was Mr L Hinchfeldt

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Mount Duneed State School in 1878
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Mount Duneed State School in 1922. The trees have grown and the windows on the front of the building have been replaced with larger ones
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This photo of the Mount Duneed State School after the fire was taken by Rev Alexander James Stewart
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The burnt out skeleton of the Mount Duneed State School stand amid the remains of the 500 trees all of which were burnt in the fierce fires
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Remains of the Mount Duneed Methodist Church

28/8/2015

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The Mount Duneed Wesleyan Methodist Church which was erected in 1857 by John Parkes Hope on a block in the recreation reserve was destroyed by fire in 1944. The map above shows the block on the south side of Russells Road where the church once stood. To the east of this block the road is unmade. The block on the north-east corner of the reserve which is in Williams Road was once a quarry and is now occupied by the pistol club. The south-east corner of the reserve was once reserved for the Presbyterian Church but this was never built. To the north of the Presbyterian Church block is the cemetery. The entrance to the pony club is to the west of the Methodist church.​
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The remains above are the south wall of the church looking north.

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This bell which once hung from a tall wooden frame at the rear of the church was rung each Sunday morning. It now stands in front of the Belmont Uniting Church in Thomson Street Belmont, Victoria.
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