History and Culture

The Wurundjeri Willum, as Traditional Owners of this land, cared for and managed it for thousands of years. Despite dispossession through colonisation from the mid-nineteenth century, they retain a spiritual connection to this site. It is the longest association of any people or group to this land.

Carome – A farm with a distinct history and importance to Victoria

Few places within the City of Whittlesea have such a diverse and interesting history as Carome. The Plenty River forms the picturesque east boundary of Carome.

Photograph by Hin Lim

Initially, squatters used land along the Plenty Valley for grazing livestock in the pastoral expansion of what was then the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. By the 1840s, Carome had evolved into a notable farming property, where wheat was grown and was milled in the farm’s own flour mill – one of the earliest flour mills in Victoria. Later, Carome became a dairy farm, and then a horse stud.

Since 2009, Carome has been managed by Working Heritage, who have restored its complex of farm buildings including its lovely bluestone homestead. The relocation of the pretty 1870s former Wollert church to Carome in 2023 has added another element of interest to this site. Carome’s scenic setting perched above the Plenty River makes it a fine place for the making, creating and hosting of events, but equally its grounds serve for many visitors as a place of respite from busy modern-day life.

Carome Mill

The defining natural feature at Carome is the Plenty River. One can stand beside the meandering course of the river and listen to the sound of the flow of its water over the picturesque rocky falls which will transform you back through millennia to a time when the Plenty Gorge was a pristine and tranquil natural environment.

It was the Plenty River’s abundant supply of freshwater that attracted Europeans to settle here. These settlers speculated that the fertile land along the Plenty River had potential to become the granary of Victoria, and by the early 1840s wheat was grown and flour milled at Carome.

The mill is most romantically situated on the bank of the river, and worked by the water from the same…

Description in the Argus newspaper, 18 April 1857

The mill was powered by a large waterwheel driven by the flow of the Plenty River. Although modest in scale, the mill at Carome is recognised to be of significance to Victoria as one of its earliest flour mills.

The Yan Yean Reservoir, completed in 1857 upstream from Carome, provided Melbourne with its first reticulated supply of freshwater. What was Melbourne’s gain, was Mernda’s loss, as farms along the Plenty River Valley were impacted by the reduced flow of water caused by the Yan Yean Reservoir. At Carome this made its mill’s waterwheel inoperable, causing the mill to cease operation, and it was later destroyed by fire in what was considered suspicious circumstances. Despite the destruction of the mill, some of its stone base remains partially visible on the riverbank.

Carome Homestead

This lovely homestead at Carome was built in 1864. It is built of bluestone, which became popular as a building material around Melbourne in the mid-nineteenth century due to its strength and durability. Early settlers at Mernda showed resourcefulness, quarrying the abundant bluestone of the local district for their buildings.

The settlers also became self-sufficient in food production. Aside from its flour mill, an orchard was located to the south of the homestead on a rise of land overlooking the Plenty River. Elsewhere on the farm, fruit, vegetables and grapevines were also grown.

The house is representative of a mid-nineteenth century homestead, with its rooms accessed from a central corridor that leads from the front door to the rear of the house. This symmetry is expressed on the front of the house with its central front door flanked by windows, and its shady front verandah that returns along each side of the house. The large roof of the house with its red brick chimneys adds to the homestead’s charm, and beneath the metal cladding on the roof its original timber shingles survive.

Photograph by Hin Lim

This homestead was a home for generations of different families that lived at Carome. Undervalued in the mid-twentieth century, the house for a time was used to store hay and later was left empty. Today, Carome and its homestead’s history is celebrated, and through the efforts of Working Heritage the house has been restored. Other conservation works have reinstated the homestead’s garden setting with lawns and paths. A short distance from the house is a community garden, where locals can get together and enjoy gardening and socialising.

Photograph by Hin Lim

Immediately on entering the homestead from its shady verandah, the house evokes a sense of its earlier days as part of a farming property of this former close-knit rural community.

Carome Homestead C1927

Carome is an oasis within Mernda. Its charming 1860s bluestone homestead, set within rambling gardens and grounds, provides visitors with a snapshot of mid-nineteenth century rural life along the idyllic Plenty River.

Sitting under the shady verandah of the homestead and beneath the trees of its garden, or when attending an event at the former Wollert church recently moved to this site, a visitor to Carome finds this to be a welcoming and special place, a place to unwind and remove oneself from the fast pace of contemporary life.

Photograph by Hin Lim