Emerald Museum and Nobelius Heritage Park (Emerald)

Nobelius Heritage Park and Emerald Museum, two of Cardinia Shire's hidden gems, are located adjacent to the Emerald Lake Park.

Emerald Museum - The museum is set within the beautiful and historic park and tells the story of Emerald and district's colourful past through displays of memorabilia, photographs and documents, dating from early Aboriginal hunting to present day.

Emerald Museum and Nobelius Heritage Park (Emerald)

Emerald Museum and Nobelius Heritage Park (Emerald)

Nobelius Heritage Park - The park offers picnic facilities along with several walking trails amongst plantings of fruit, native and ornamental trees along with lavender, rosemary and salvias.

The park is listed by Heritage Victoria as of state significance as it represents the once famous Gembrook Nursery that started in 1886 by Swedish immigrant Carl Axel Nobelius and was the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time. At its peak the nursery covered more than 40 hectares and included what is now Emerald Lake Park and Emerald Country Club.

It is is now four and a half hectares and is preserved as a remnant of this historic enterprise, with many specimens of trees once stocked by the nursery

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) project

This project uses water sensitive urban design (WSUD) principals to reduce sediment and improve the quality of stormwater flowing into Treganowan and Nobelius lakes in Emerald Lake Park.

When it rains, the water runs over hard surfaces like roads and roofs but also over open fields collecting pollutants such as nutrients (e.g. phosphorus, nitrogen, sediments, heavy metals and oils. This water is directed into stormwater pipes which eventually discharge to our waterways.

WSUD offers an alternative solution to managing stormwater, it incorporates stormwater quality treatment measures with conventional drainage methods so that the water collected is cleaned before entering waterways.

WSUD is extremely beneficial in this environmentally sensitive and heritage significant site. It reduces the need for bulky pipes and pits and provides ecological benefits by removing up to 125 kilograms of nitrogen and 15 tonnes of sediments per year as well as protecting the landscape from erosion and creating habitat for wildlife.

Stormwater discharging into the Nobelius Heritage Park from the surrounding area is pre-treated in two large custom-designed sediment traps. The water sensitive urban design treatment train continues in a series of swales, rain gardens and cascading rock chutes that have been installed in the existing drainage line.

Upper rain garden (bio-retention system) - Rain gardens are sunken garden beds planted with deep-rooted plants and grasses grown in a loamy sand material (filter media). They treat stormwater runoff before it enters underground drainage systems that discharge into waterways.

Before entering the rain gardens, fast flowing water is dispersed by the rock and mesh borders (known as gabions). The inlet gabion pond slows the flow of water coming from the pipe and the gabion step-downs control the water speed as it moves over the change in levels.

Stormwater then pools over the rain gardens for a short time, allowing it to filter through the selected soil and vegetation before being collected by a slotted pipe at the bottom.

In large storm events, the water overflows the rain garden weirs into the grated pit at the outlet.

The Nobelius rain gardens have been planted with indigenous and native plants suited to wet and dry environments. Additional border landscaping includes ferns, strawberries and rhubarb.

Opening Hours:

Museum Opening Hours

Cost:

The entry to the museum is gold coin donation and Nobelius Heritage Park is free.

Review:

Nobelius Heritage Park is the only nationally significant nursery collection identified in Australia that is housed in the same nursery grounds in which it was developed.

The Emerald - Cockatoo multi-use trail passes through the park. Highlights and areas of the park include picnic facilities, water treatment gardens, Emerald Museum which has items of local area history including agricultural tools, Carl Axel Nobelius Memorial Sundial, information panels on pole throughout the park, trees with identification labels, lavender gardens, Salvia Gardens (collection of Salvias from all over the world and Nobelius Nurseries in an impressive building.

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