Historical information

The Gembrook Nurseries, informally known as the Nobelius Nurseries after the founder Carl Axel Nobelius, began with the purchase of sixty-three acres in 1886 and boomed in the 1890s due to opportunities provided by employment-promoting schemes to develop public parks and gardens and street shade by local and State Governments around Australia. Trees were sold to more than forty councils and Government organisations in the 1890s, including the Department of Agriculture, Lands Department and Victorian Railways. The need to transport nursery products by train via Ferntree Gully rather than by bullock dray to Narre Warren was a factor in the successful petition to develop what is now known as the Puffing Billy Railway.

Railway developments in 1900 included the creation of a siding and Packing Shed, known as Nobelius Station, which is featured in this photograph. The Packing Shed was able to handle 250,000 cases of fruit each year.

Gembrook Nurseries had an indirect influence on the development of other farms and industries in the region. As a wholesale nursery with high sales volumes it was an important employer of local people. Peak season for employees was during the cooler months, during most farmers' off-season. This provided local farmers with a source of income while their own farms were becoming established.

Significance

The photograph is significant because it depicts personnel and infrastructure associated with the Gembrook or Nobelius Nurseries, a business which was instrumental to the development of Emerald as a settlement in the 19th and 20th Centuries and also influenced the development of public and private gardens and the farming of several species in Australia and internationally. The Nobelius Nursery is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Physical description

Black and white rectangular photograph printed on print media paper. The image is captioned 'Lunch Hour at the Packing Shed, Gembrook Nurseries.' It depicts thirty-one men (including one adolescent) and one woman posing for a group photograph behind approximately five large product bales resting in a rectangular metal rail cargo carriage. One of the men has a bandage across one eye. The people depicted are wearing clothing indicating the image may have been taken in the early 20th century. The Packing Shed building (built in 1900) and several stacked wooden storage crates are visible behind the group.

Inscriptions & markings

Obverse:
59 NOR (?) 10 (?) + /
LUNCH HOUR AT THE PACKING SHED, GEMBROOK NURSERIES. /