Recollections of Claude and Isobel Crowe and Berrima Bridge Nurseries was a featured event during the National Trust’s Heritage Festival.

On display were the Claude Crowe Papers courtesy of Historic Houses Trust. These included plans of more than 200 local gardens designed by the Crowes.

The originals of these papers are held in the HHT’s Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, Macquarie Street, Sydney (the site of the former Sydney Mint).

Also exhibited were storyboards and photographs featuring a history of the nurseries and biographies of Claude and Isobel. Visitors were able to find out more about this special couple who made a lasting contribution to the landscape of the Southern Highlands.

Claude and Isobel Crowe started the nurseries on a 2 acre (0.8 hectare) site in Jellore Street, Berrima, in 1943. Their first job was to clear it of blackberries and other weeds, which was all done using hand tools. Cypress trees (C. torulosa & C. macrocarpa ‘Aurea’) were planted as windbreaks. During the war, vegetable seed was grown in the nursery for the “Mother Seed” program and a “Turn Key” horticultural operation in the Pacific.

Through a national company, United Seeds, the government granted military exemption to those people with expertise to produce pure strains of vegetable seed.

The harvested “mother seed” was stored in underground vaults for future replanting of crops should the Japanese invade Australia. A military program was to be implemented by the Australian Government to destroy all food crops and thus hinder and delay the Japanese military invasion, forcing them to extend their food supply logistics to rely on resupply by ship and thus force the Japanese to abandon military operations here.

The “Turn Key” operation involved a complete horticultural kit packed in wooden crates consisting of farming equipment for ploughing, tilling and sowing and manuals on the methods of planting and harvesting seed to be used in the Pacific War, to grow fresh food crops to feed the US?Army.

They also produced and supplied a range of herbs for use as natural medicines in the war, being before the development of antibiotics.

After the war, an increasing range of cool climate trees and shrubs were propagated in the nurseries and sold throughout the State. Four glasshouses were used for propagation.

An irrigation system was installed in 1946, using a small single cylinder engine. This was later superseded by a 6 HP three phase motor.

It was a very labour-intensive operation, with all weeding by hand and the only mechanisation small rotary tillers. Herbicides were not used, and pesticides kept to a minimum. Natural predators and birds were encouraged to assist in pest control.

By 1960, the nursery property had increased to 10 acres (4 ha) and consisted of the “Home Block” with the home and glasshouses, “The Corner”, which became the public retail section and where the pump irrigation system was installed, and a separate open ground growing area in Wingecarribee Street with its own electric pump and underground irrigation system.

With the addition of a property across the river, Berrima Bridge Nurseries grew to 23 acres (about 9ha). Claude built a bridge to enable a small tractor and trailer to cross the river from the main property. The blocks on that side of the river were warmer and well drained.

In 1983, Isobel and Claude were joined in managing the nurseries by their son, Noel. A new 10ha block was bought at Robertson while new work sheds and facilities were built at Robertson and Berrima.

Claude was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) and died in 1999. The business closed in 2000 and Isobel continued to live there until her death in 2009.

* Thanks to Laurel Cheetham of the Australian Garden History Society, Southern Highlands Branch, who put together this Crowe history with the assistance of Noel Crowe.

o This article is sourced from the archives of Berrima District Historical & Family History Society, Bowral Rd, Mittagong. Contribution of information & old photographs welcome. Email bdhsarchives@acenet.com.au; call 4872 2169. Website: berrimadistrict

historicalsociety.org.au