Westgarthtown & Life Ed.

WESTGARTHTOWN

As part of this semester’s Inquiry Unit – ‘Back to the Future’, the Year 2s went on an exciting excursion to the past when we visited the history of the local area we live in at Westgarthtown.

Westgarthtown is an historic dairy farming settlement sixteen kilometres north of Melbourne established in 1850 by German and Wendish immigrants brought over by a Melbourne merchant called William Westgarth. 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).

We were involved in a number of activities.  We went on a Heritage Walk to see the old houses and buildings still around in the local area.  We saw the original bluestone homes and the Wuchatsch Farm.

We walked through the Lutheran Cemetery and talked about the original settlers of the land that were buried there. We took a close look at the old Lutheran Church as well.

Our excursion was not complete without a tour of Ziebell’s Farmhouse. It was like we stepped back into the past!  John our tour guide told us how people in those days worked, and how they relaxed at the end of the day.  We saw what they used to dig, wash, clean and cook with, and how they used to get water.  

We learnt a lot about how the migrants and their families came here all the way from Germany.  The ship they came in was called the Pribislaw, and we got to see a part of the actual wood from the ship on display in the farmhouse.

LIFE EDUCATION 

We were lucky this year to have our visit from Life Education. Our Year 2 unit was called ‘Safety Rules’. 

We learnt the many different ways to stay safe and to how to call ‘000’ in an emergency.  Shy was a good Life Ed teacher.  We had fun acting out different scenarios and it was very active and FUN!

We watched a short video about how to stay safe when camping and we contributed our thoughts and ideas. At the end we got to see and meet Harold the Giraffe.  He was cute and funny.