More about Drysdale

In recent years Drysdale has become very popular with commuters, and this change in the population has lead to an extension to the shopping centre, offering a large variety of services and conveniences.

Things to see and do in Drysdale include Mcleod's Water Holes, Lake Lorne, a number of highly regarded wineries, as well as popular golf courses in Curlewis and Clifton Springs.

The Bellarine Railway, running through to Queenscliff, now terminates in Drysdale. The adjoining Bellarine Rail Trail offers access South East to Queenscliff and West to Geelong.

Drysdale provides very easy access to Geelong, and all the other picturesque attractions on The Bellarine.

A brief history

Anne Drysdale arrived in 1840 and with a business partner, Miss Caroline Elizabeth Newcomb, had a licence to occupy ‘Boronggoop’, a ‘squatting’ run between the Barwon River and Corio Bay. In 1843, the women obtained a lease on Coriyule and in 1848, bought 1,357 acres (approximately 550 hectares) which included Coriyule on which their stone homestead, built in 1849, still stands. Aborigines of the Wathaurong tribe, whose territory stretched between the Werribee River and the Otway Ranges, occupied the land before settlement. One early settler reported that Aborigines camped at the Water Holes in Drysdale in 1855 but had disappeared by 1900. The land was used by (legal) squatters before Anne Drysdale arrived. After squatter graziers left, grain crops, particularly wheat, were grown in Drysdale during the 1860s. Later, onions and potatoes, still grown today, were farmed. Due to brick and stone construction done in past years, and because Drysdale was a road and rail junction, many historic buildings still remain in the district.