Lalor bluestone farmhouse sells after 150 years
The 1850s Wuchatsch’s Farmhouse at Lalor, believed to be the oldest home in Melbourne to be built, owned and continuously occupied by the same family, has been sold at $1,275,000.
The 7,595 square metre property at 74 Robert St, Lalor, is the most complete of those found in the surviving Westgarthtown dairy farming settlement.
In 1850, German and Wendish immigrants developed Westgarthtown on the banks of Edgars Creek, 16 kilometres north of Melbourne.
It is a heritage-listed bluestone building feast in the Thomastown and Lalor district.
Wuchatsch’s Farmhouse was the home of Wends Johann and Magdalene Wuchatsch and their family of 10 German and Australian-born children.
Johann Wuchatsch was a foundation member of the Westgarthtown Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Victoria’s Synod.
Currently owned and occupied by third-generation family members Robert Wuchatsch, Dorothy Kelly and Betty Barba, the bluestone house has five rooms, including two bedrooms.
The floorplan is in the traditional German farmhouse style with interconnecting rooms and no hallway. An attic extends the length of the building with a window at each end.
There are three other bluestone buildings on the property connected by cobblestone pathways and dry stone walls, including the stables, a milking shed and a dairy.
The property was sold by Jim Kalakias and Graeme Love of Love Real Estate Epping.
The existing heritage-listed buildings must be retained on 3,905 square metres with a possible seven lots on the remaining land which the buyer will be pursuing, Graeme Love told Property Observer.
Kalakias expected interest from a wide range of buyers as possible use as a reception centre, artists’ studio, cafe or community centre.
The City of Whittlesea purchased the neighbouring Ziebell’s farmhouse several years ago with Ziebell’s Farmhouse now part of a guided tour conducted by the Friends of Westgarthtown of the Thomastown Pioneer Precinct.
But they council showed no interest this time.