Historical information
Carl Axel Nobelius established the Gembrook Nurseries in 1886 on sixty-three acres purchased from an original selector after the area's gold rush started to diminish. It was called the Gembrook Nurseries as it was located in the Parish of Gembrook, but it was commonly referred to as the Nobelius nurseries after its founder; especially as control of the remaining portions of the nurseries remained with the Nobelius family until 1955.
The nurseries occupied 280 acres at their peak in 1905, with more than one million trees available for sale at that time. The nursery focused on exotic fruit and ornamental species which were supplied to public parks and gardens all over the world. In several cases the nurseries were the first suppliers of the trees in Australia. Sales records show that trees were supplied to clients in Europe, Asia, the United States, Africa and New Zealand, as well as to many Councils and Government organisations around Australia, such as Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens and Royal Botanic Gardens.
This photograph shows a postcard from the Rose Stereograph Company's "Rose Series". Victorian photographer George Rose started the Rose Stereograph Company in the 1880s and produced stereographic views (an early form of 3D image production) of the Western Front during the First World War but switched to producing postcards in the 1920s. Photographers for the company produced thousands of views of Victoria and locations interstate during the following decades.
Significance
The postcard is significant because it depicts the built environment and gardens at the Gembrook Nurseries during the early decades of the Twentieth Century; a period in which the nurseries were the leading Southern-hemisphere supplier of plants and trees to public gardens around the world.
Physical description
Black and white rectangular postcard printed on card. The postcard depicts cultivated fields, roads, fencing and buildings at the Gembrook Nurseries.
Inscriptions & markings
Obverse:
THE ROSE SERIES. P. 1626 /
Copyright /
PANORAMA AT EMERALD, VICTORIA /
