An Amazing Case and a Heritage Garden
In January 1856, Christian Ziebell returned from ten-month trip to Germany with, potentially, plants in a Wardian Case. This invention by Dr. Ward changed the world and the world of plants. Enjoy a performance of The Amazing Case of Doctor Ward and entry to Ziebell's Farmhouse Museum and Garden.
The Amazing Case of Dr Ward is a short performance of a ripping yarn about this doctor and enthusiastic amateur naturalist, who accidentally discovered a plant growing inside a glass container. The Wardian case (as it became known) revolutionized the transportation of plants and were in use up until 1962.
Ziebell’s Farmhouse Museum tells the story of Westgarthtown, an historic dairy farming settlement sixteen kilometres north of Melbourne established in 1850 by German and Wendish immigrants. Many of Westgarthtown’s outstanding bluestone heritage buildings and structures still survive. These include Ziebell’s Farmhouse (c.1850-51); a picturesque Lutheran Cemetery (1850); and Australia’s oldest operating Lutheran Church (1856). Ziebell’s Garden dates from the 1850’s.