Mount Rouse or be shot. The reserve however was consistently underfunded and could not provide for the needs of hundreds of people. Therefore, few Aboriginal people remained for any great length of time at Mount Rouse. The reserve was also blamed for providing shelter to Aboriginal people who took livestock and speared shepherds at the surrounding sheep stations. These issues chronically interfered with the operation of the protectorate, and in 1849 Dr Watton resigned from his position. A year later the Aboriginal Protectorate was officially closed down and divided up into two grazing properties with a reserve for a township which became the settlement of Penshurst. Township of Penshurst The town of Penshurst was gazetted in the 1850s, the Post Office opening on 1 September 1857. In 1852 German Lutherans led by Johann Friedrich Krummnow founded a community named Herrnhut located near Mount Rouse about 8 km from Penshurst – the group adhered to the principles of shared property and fervent prayer. Krummnow died there in 1880 and the community had disbanded by 1890. The Penshurst Magistrates' Court closed on 1 November 1981, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1971. The Penshurst Volcanoes Discovery Centre is an interpretive centre and tourist information centre located in Martin Street in the old Shire of Mount Rouse offices. It contains an audio/visual display of volcanoes in general, and the eruptions and lava flows of the district in particular. Geography Penshurst is located in an area littered with basalt stones up 2m long from the Mount Rouse volcano. These are known locally as the stony rises, the technical name being "breached barriers", having been formed from collapsed lava tubes. Features similar to the stony rises may be observed in other areas of south-west Victoria where there is a history of volcanic activity. Mount Rouse rises 100m above the surrounding plain (367m above sea level) and is composed of both basaltic lava and scoria. It has several craters, the lower of which is a crater lake. The north east side of Mount Rouse is used as a quarry and crushed for road making scoria. There were instances in the 1970s where bushfires triggered peat fires beneath the stony rises which burnt for a number on months. A fire watch building is located at the top of Mount Rouse. Penshurst is serviced by a fresh water spring located in the town. Sport The town