A bluestone farmhouse dating back to 1850, sitting just 16 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, opens free for three days in July as part of Open House Melbourne Weekend. Ziebell’s Farmhouse Museum and Heritage Garden in Thomastown is returning with a new focus: the German and Wendish dairy farmers who fed the young city from paddocks most people now drive past without a second glance.
The Westgarthtown precinct was a pocket of smallholdings that produced milk and honey, carted straight into Melbourne’s growing population in the 1850s. This year’s ‘Generous City’ theme makes that story feel immediate. The city survived and grew because of what these migrant families planted and tended, barely a train ride from today’s CBD.
From Friday 24 July to Sunday 26 July, between 10am and 4:30pm, the homestead, heritage smokehouse, and cottage garden at 100 Gardenia Road will be open with no booking required. Just turn up and wander. Guided tours led by Germantown descendants run throughout the weekend, and a German storytime on Sunday afternoon adds a quieter, seated layer to the programme. Children can make playdough cookies and dairy-cow magnets while adults take in the bluestone walls and smokehouse beams.
Unlike many Open House sites, the grounds here are free and unbooked. The curated descendant tours, however, need a ticket. Second-release spots went on sale on 4 July, and with capacities intentionally small, they’re moving quickly. If you want a guided walk through the farm’s layers of history, grab one now via Humanitix. The $7 fee is fair for the depth you’ll get.
Open House Melbourne Weekend is famous for unlocking city architecture: bank chambers, clock towers, the occasional brutalist car park. Ziebell’s Farmhouse flips that expectation entirely. It’s not a building you admire for its facade. It’s a working farmstead that produced the milk that fed Melbourne in the 1860s. The honey from the garden hives is still part of the story today.
Getting to Gardenia Road isn’t complicated. Thomastown station is a straightforward train trip from the city, then a short local bus or drive to the museum. If you’re driving, the Westgarthtown Pioneer Precinct is well signed off the main roads. Pair the visit with other Open House sites across Melbourne’s north. The Open House website already has family-friendly itineraries, so you can build a full day that mixes farmstead history with architecture elsewhere without chasing your tail.
The descendants who lead the tours are the direct link. They’ll tell you about the Ziebell family and the Wends who carved a dairy landscape out of basalt plains. When you stand inside that bluestone homestead, you’re standing inside the story of how Melbourne ate. That feels generous.
Quick Facts
City of Whittlesea
Local government area in Melbourne’s northern suburbs that encompasses Thomastown and the Westgarthtown Pioneer Precinct. It manages heritage sites including Ziebell’s Farmhouse Museum and supports community events highlighting local history and multiculturalism.