Meet the lederhosen-clad German who built a “Swiss alpine village” in Bayswater

A family-run “Swiss alpine village” in Bayswater built by a German migrant in the 1930s became one of Melbourne’s more eccentric tourist attractions, complete with a man-made dam.

🇩🇪 🇦🇺 Making a home: Born in Hamburg in 1880, Hermann Otto Friedrich Busch migrated to Australia in 1912.

• His early years in the country were shaped by World War I, when he was imprisoned at the Langwarrin Internment Camp as an “enemy alien”.

• Busch married Richmond-born Dorothea Emilie Hennings in 1917, with the couple gifted more than four acres on Mountain Highway in Bayswater in 1927 by her father.

🛶 A local getaway: A qualified house painter-decorator, Busch turned his attention to the property in the early 1930s, building what was described at the time as a “Swiss alpine village”.

• Known as Waldheim Farm Guest House and Reception Centre, the property featured a tearoom, bungalows, wedding function rooms and a skittle alley – a European precursor to tenpin bowling.

• The grounds became a local attraction after Busch built a concrete weir, thus creating a lake for boating, fishing, swimming and diving.

🍺 Larger than life: In a local historical publication, Brian St Alban Smith recalled Busch – often called “Poppa” – wearing embroidered lederhosen, a Tyrolean hat, woollen stockings and mountain boots.

• 🗣️“He smoked a fearsome meerschaum pipe with a pepper pot lid,” Smith said.

❤️ A family affair: Busch’s granddaughter Margaret Imberger, who grew up at Waldheim alongside 10 other grandchildren, told the Eastern Melburnian on Monday that her grandfather was “very strict” and “no-nonsense”, recalling occasions where he fired warning shots to scare off boys near the boat shed.

• Imberger said she and her siblings, nieces and nephews had to work across the property, including raking plums and milking cows.

🤝 Changing hands: After Busch died in 1960, the Dandenong Valley Authority destroyed the weir during channel works in the early 1960s.

• Imberger’s parents continued operating the property until selling it in 1973.

• The Palesviaki Enosis Club later used the site as a support hub for Greek-Australians from Lesvos.

The property at 26 Waldheim Road in Bayswater sold in March 2024 for $6.77 million.