Ringwood was first settled by Europeans in the early 1850’s (first land sale 1854. Some aboriginals lived in the area before that). For the first 50 years or so, most of the settlers were subsistence farmers, with a strong focus on orchards serving the city markets, but there was a little antimony mining as well. These settlers generally bought land from the crown in multi-acre blocks, organised around the few roads in the district.
These roads have gone on to become the main roads of today’s Ringwood (Whitehorse Rd/Maroondah Highway, Deep Creek Road, Warrandyte Road). Many of the side roads are named after the owners of the original land on which they are built. On the wall at the little museum at Schwerkolt Cottage there’s a surveyor’s map of the Mitcham area (next to Ringwood) from about 1890, and the relation between the settler’s names and the resulting roads is obvious.
The first Christadelphian that lived in Ringwood that we know about came to the area in the early 1890’s, living on Wonga Road (apparently in the area now known as the “Golden Mile”). The nearby Unsworth Road is named after him. He and his family (8 children) lived in small cottage of which a visiting Christadelphian wrote “the dwelling is not welcoming, though less so inside”. Presumably it was somewhat like Schwerkolt Cottage - visitors can see why!
Mr Unsworth established a small Christadelphian group (called “ecclesia”) in Ringwood in 1896 to avoid the difficulty of the long trip into the city on Sundays. This group lasted until 1936 when it closed (cause unknown). A new group was established in Rupert St in 1956, co-joined to the Olivet Nursing Home which is owned and operated by the Christadelphian Community of Melbourne. We have existed since then, and we count 3 great-great-great children of the original Mr Unsworth among our members.
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That’s great Grahame. Well done! More please.