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 at the height of the nurseries' activities. The image shows the Packing Shed with boarded-up windows, suggesting it was taken prior to the purchase of the facility for use in the Puffing Billy Railway service.

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 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

A coloured rectangular photograph of the Nobelius Nurseries Packing Shed. The photograph was taken in the grounds looking up towards the packing shed. There are various trees and vegetation throughout the grounds and surrounding the packing shed. The Nobelius Nurseries Packing Shed was used to sort and pack trees to be sent overseas during the 1900s-1940s.

Inscriptions & markings

No inscriptions/marks