Back to search results » Back to search page »

Former Taylor & Sangster Nursery

Location

85 Sangsters Road, MOUNT MACEDON VIC 3441 - Property No G13111

File Number

G13111

Level

State

Statement of Significance

The Taylor and Sangster nursery site, established in 1875 and operated until the 1930s by descendants of Sangster, is of State cultural significance:
Classified: 15/09/1993

- for its collection of trees and plants, representative of nineteenth century horticultural fashion; incorporating many species now rare in cultivation in Victoria; for several outstanding individual specimens listed separately on the National Trust Register of Significant Trees;

- historically, for its links with William Taylor and William Sangster, who individually and through their nursery firm of Taylor and Sangster, were involved in the design, establishment and maintenance of many of Victoria and Australia's finest gardens, including Como, Rippon Lea, Alton, Rupertswood, Ard Choille and Wombat Hill;

- as an integral part of Mount Macedon, an area renowned for its collection of hill station gardens; this nursery supplied many of the plants which today comprise the most important components of this area;

- for the retention of much of the early curvilinear layout, unusual in a garden type noted for rigid rectilinear plans but here befitting the hilly terrain;

- for the manner in which the site demonstrates the working mode of Victoria's early nurseries, especially its link with a metropolitan nursery and the commercial sagacity of Taylor and Sangster in establishing a nursery in the vicinity of a burgeoning horticultural paradise, then being developed by Victoria's most prominent 'gentleman scientists', political figures and 'captains of commerce and industry';

- for the retention of considerable documentary evidence which permits the early operations of site to be demonstrated, this material includes plant lists, catalogues and newspaper articles.

Group