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Key points
- The Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens, which surround the Burnham Beeches property, were created between 1929 and 1939 by Nicholas who made his fortune establishing the aspirin patent, Aspro in 1915.
- In 1935 Australian Home Beautiful proclaimed the gardens were “the most wonderful gardens in the Southern Hemisphere”.
- Burnham Beeches was heritage listed in 1991 but the registration did not include the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens.
- Heritage Victoria has recommended the gardens are included in the Victorian Heritage Register.
Historic gardens surrounding a landmark Dandenongs property earmarked for a $100 million hotel redevelopment are poised for protection on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Burnham Beeches was bought last year by the Trenerry Consortium, backed by the wealthy Smorgon family, which plans to develop the Sherbrooke property into a luxury Six Senses hotel.
Dandenongs resident Chuck Page with his son and dog in the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens on Tuesday. Credit: Justin McManus
While the privately owned art deco Burnham Beeches mansion has been on the Victorian Heritage Register since 1991, the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens on Crown land surrounding the mansion have no protection.
The Burnham Beeches property has been the subject of several failed development attempts, most recently by chef Shannon Bennett and his business partner Adam Garrison.
It was bought by the Trenerry Consortium, which includes Trenerry Property, the Victor Smorgon Group and the Kanat Group, last year for $16.6 million.
The consortium, which redeveloped Sorrento’s Continental hotel, has plans for a $100 million development of the Burnham Beeches property including a luxury hotel, restaurant, wellness retreat and glamping site.
The master plan includes developing 43 rooms in the mansion and a suite of temporary glamping tents, dubbed the Hilltop Retreat.
Trenerry Consortium declined to comment on Heritage Victoria’s moves to protect the surrounding gardens. The state government body’s recommendation goes to an independent statutory authority, Heritage Council of Victoria, which decides whether to grant legal protection on the Heritage Register.
The Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens were created between 1929 and 1939 by Nicholas, who made his fortune establishing aspirin patent Aspro in the early 1900s.
Nicholas brought out Percy Trevaskis, whom he met at the 1929 Chelsea Flower Show, as head gardener to supervise a team of more than 60 workers to create what the Australian Home Beautiful proclaimed in 1935 were “the most wonderful gardens in the Southern Hemisphere”.
An artist’s impression of the new Six Senses resort planned for Burnham Beeches.
“It is remarkable in configuration … The slope is laid out in parkland and paddocks; the dip is ribbed with terraces, threaded with pathways and planted with thousands of wonderful trees … [Nicholas] encouraged the idea of boldness; of developing the marvellous possibilities for landscape architecture on the grand scale,” the magazine said.
In its recommendation for heritage protection for the gardens Heritage Victoria highlights the sloping terrain, terraced gardens, stone stairways and ornamental lake with small islands.
“The land proposed for inclusion reflects the lush, overgrown character of the Dandenong Ranges,” Heritage Victoria’s recommendation says. “Plantings are a combination of mature exotic and indigenous species. The northernmost portion of the place retains native forest, which is largely unchanged since the time of the garden’s creation.”
Burnham Beeches was a residence for the Nicholas family for many years, and during World War II was a children’s hospital before being sold. In 1983, it opened as a hotel, the Burnham Beeches Country House, which operated until 1992.
Since then, there have been countless proposals for the redevelopment of the property but none have gone ahead.
Samantha Westbrooke, manager of conservation and advocacy at the National Trust, said it backed the push to protect the gardens.
“The Arthur Nicholas gardens are a really important part of the significance of Burnham Beeches,” she said. “Having a holistic understanding of the place is important.”
Westbrooke said heritage protection would help developers have a better understanding of what they needed to consider when making decisions about Burnham Beeches.
“[Burnham Beeches] was originally assessed and put on the register as just the buildings and the gardens were left out and it is really great that Heritage Victoria is relooking at these places,” she said. “Heritage changes and our understanding of it changes so we need to move with the times.”
Local resident Chuck Page said he supported the protection of the gardens as a heritage site but hoped it did not stop the proposed development at Burnham Beeches going ahead.
“There’s a lot of Nimbyism [not in my backyard] out here in the hills,” he said. “I’m not calling for major grand scale development by any means, but I do think if not this, then what’s the plan for it? Because who wants to see it lost to time and history? We have a real chance to restore one of the grand old dames of the hills really.”
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