Most of this building was 140 years old in 1996 – built in 1856 as a Wesleyan Methodist Church on land owned by a Mr King of Bridge Inn Road, Separation – an area near Bob’s Hill, west of Mernda.
For over 30 years it was used each week for two church services and Sunday School. On weekdays it was used as a day school rented by the Education Department. The population began to move towards Mernda, and land was bought near the railway line in Mernda to build a new Methodist church of bluestone and brick.
The new Mernda church was built in 1888 – Australia’s centenary year – at a cost of 850 pounds with most of this cost being donated by Mr John Horner. This wooden building was then transported from Separation to the new Mernda church site by farmers using 32 horses. it was set up beside the new church and used as a Sunday School for nearly fifty years. A ‘Tea Meeting’ was held in the hall the same day it was moved – and these meetings were held annually – together with many fetes and social evenings.
(Source – Mrs Kath Bassett, 1997, grand-daughter of Mr John Homer)
On July 26th, 1936 Fred and Eva Young, and their three children, Len, Violet and Phyllis came to Yarrambat from Crossover, near Warragul. They lived in a mud house for a few years while they cleared the land of timber and got the farm in order.
150 sheep were bought so a shearing shed was needed! The old Methodist Church hall at Mernda was being auctioned at the Mernda Saleyards so Fred Young bought the hall for sixteen pounds. The hall was then completely dismantled, transported by T-Model Ford to this site and rebuilt as a shearing-shed in 1939.
Len Young built the existing weather-board house (golf club residence) with its galvanised roof. The cleared land was ploughed and oaten hay grown, cut into chaff (using the chaff cutter on display) and sold to cornstores at Diamond Creek and Hurstbridge for 3 shillings and sixpence per bag.
The original purchase of land was 217 acres of river frontage from Mr Mayfield, 100 acres on the south from Mrs Sabelberg and 55 acres to the north from Mr J. Jeffrey. In 1977 this land, now Yarrambat Park, was purchased by the Diamond Valley Council for a golf course and community sporting and recreation complex.
(Source – Mr Len Young, 1999)
Yarrambat Historical Society, 2009
Photo: Shearing and Storage sheds, Yarrambat Historical Society Open Day, Spring 2009. Photographer: Kevin Patterson. YPRL collection
