About Glasshouse
As wool prices increased in the 1950s, Dave Gordon was able to leave some of the running of the sheep property to others while he hired botanists to help him follow his dream of creating a garden to showcase some of the rare native plants found in this country.
Len and Ivy left to tour Western Australia, to gather seeds and cutting material to send back to Dave. They travelled and slept in an old Vanguard ute and lived in it until their return in April, 1955. They loved the wild profusion of flowers they saw during their travels.
Alf Gray, a nurseryman from the Government Nursery in Victoria, where he had established an unchallenged reputation for seed raising, was then hired by Dave. He arrived in 1954 and continued after Len and Ivy left to help further develop the Garden and to process all the collected and recorded seeds and carefully pressed material sent back by Len. It was Alf’s responsibility to establish the area built for the sprouting seedlings.
He and Dave were both driven by the same goals, to grow rare Australian native plants that may otherwise become extinct and to display them for all to admire. Alf designed a glasshouse, sometimes called a misting house, in which to grow all these new plants and it was built to his specifications.
It must have been a giant undertaking as the closest hardware shops were miles away and probably did not stock many of the items needed. Dave and Alf were ingenious and the structure is remarkable in design, giving maximum flexibility to allow air and sun in or closed off as the plants needed. Originally the roof was a wooden louvred design over the glass plates to add even more flexibility. The building is built from cypress pine to withstand termite attack and the lower walls are of something solid and they have stood the test of time very well. The louvres disintegrated many years ago and were removed to prevent damage to the glass plates.
Originally the glasshouse was filled with small pots of seeds or cutting material and extra pots were placed on the ground between the glasshouse and the potting shed. Extra benches were built to store the larger plants to harden them prior to planting. There were pots and plants on every available space but Dave urged ever more planting as he was often heard to say “ Never mind the losses, just keep planting”.
In 2022 the Glass House was in danger of collapsing as the cypress rafters were at last beginning to rot and crack. A small grant from the Queensland Heritage Department and thousands of volunteer hours resulted in the glass panels being removed, rafters, glass and other structural timbers replaced and fresh paint and clean windows. It now looks as good as new and houses the equipment that was used in the nursery 80 years ago.
