Drysdale - A brief history

The town of Drysdale was named after Miss Anne Drysdale who with Miss Caroline Newcomb owned several acres of land in the area, building a stone house named Coriyule in 1849, which still exists today.

Early farming in the area was sheep and cattle followed by a boom in grain in the 1860s. Many buildings were established in the town from as early as the 1840s including hotels, churches and a library. Drysdale soon became the base for the Bellarine shire offices and attracted locals from the surrounding towns to shop in Drysdale leaving Drysdale with a rather large shopping centre.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  DID YOU KNOW?

The Bellarine Peninsula Railway that runs a tourist service between Drysdale and historic Queenscliff once linked Geelong, as a commercial service, but was decommissioned in the 1970's.

The Bellarine Shire was amalgamated into the City of Greater Geelong in the early 1990s, the shire offices are now owned by a Christian College.

The area where Clifton Springs now stands was once a single large property that was bought by Thomas Bates in the late 1800s. He named the property Clifton and after mineral springs were discovered on in 1870 he built a resort on the property.

By 1900 Clifton springs was a booming resort, the pier had been extended to cope with steamer traffic and a large hotel and sea baths had also been established. Clifton Springs' life as holiday resort was short lived.

As the bay steamers stopped visiting the area tourism dwindled and several parts of the resort fell into disrepair, the hotel burn down in 1923 and was rebuilt 3 years later.

In 1957 the hotel area was purchased and converted into a country club and golf course while subdivision started on surrounding area. In 1977 the Bellarine Shire Council bought the once hotel set it up as a Community Centre to support the now growing population of Clifton Springs.