Penshurst

History

Before British colonisation, the area around Mount Rouse was the country of the Kolorer gunditj clan of Aboriginal people. Their title is derived from their name for Mount Rouse which was Kolor. The permanent spring that is now located within the Penshurst Botanic Gardens was a traditional meeting place for the Aboriginal people in the region. Conflict with the Aboriginal population soon followed and in May 1840 a manager at the property named Patrick Codd who had a significant history of violence against Aboriginal people, was killed. Revenge killings by the colonists resulted in up to twenty Aboriginal people being shot. A local Indigenous man named Figara Alkapurata (or Roger) was later arrested for Codd's murder and executed in Melbourne. In early 1842, the colonial government decided to create a reserve for Aboriginal people at Mount Rouse. John Cox was ordered off the land, moving to the neighbouring Weerangourt property. In February 1842, around 210 Aboriginal people from various tribal groups in the region arrived at Mount Rouse accompanied by Assistant Protector Charles Sievwright. The main buildings of the Protectorate were located at what is now the corner of Cox and Martin streets in Penshurst. The town of Penshurst was gazetted in the 1850s, the Post Office opening on 1 September 1857. In 1852 German Lutherans led by Johann Friedrich Krummnow founded a community named Herrnhut located near Mount Rouse about 8 km from Penshurst – the group adhered to the principles of shared property and fervent prayer. Krummnow died there in 1880 and the community had disbanded by 1890. The Penshurst Memorial Hall located in Martin Street in the centre of the township began as the local Mechanic's Institute in 1871. By 1926, when the Penshurst Mechanics Institute…

Geography

Penshurst is located in an area littered with basalt stones up 2m long from the Mount Rouse volcano. These are known locally as the stony rises, the technical name being "breached barriers", having been formed from collapsed lava tubes. Features similar to the stony rises may be observed in other areas of south-west Victoria where there is a history of volcanic activity. Mount Rouse rises 100m above the surrounding plain (367m above sea level) and is composed of both basaltic lava and scoria. It has several craters, the lower of which is a crater lake. The north east side of Mount Rouse is used as a quarry and crushed for road making scoria. There were instances in the 1970s where bushfires triggered peat fires beneath the stony rises which burnt for a number on months. A fire watch building is located at the top of Mount Rouse. Penshurst is serviced by a fresh water spring located in the town.

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  177
• Little Raven

  Corvus mellori Mathews, 1912 · Aves
  125
• Black Swan

  Cygnus atratus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  123
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  106
• Pacific Black Duck

  Anas superciliosa J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  104
• White-faced Heron

  Egretta novaehollandiae (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  95
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  94
• Australian Shelduck

  Tadorna tadornoides (Jardine & Selby, 1828) · Aves
  90

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2011-06-01
  45 km NE of Hamilton, Australia