After considerable lobbying the land on which the nursery was based was purchased by the former Shire of Sherbrooke with the help of the State Government. In 1988 the land, now a public park opened as ‘Nobelius Heritage Nursery’ even though in fact it was not operated as a business. Eventually to avoid confusion, the ‘park’ was renamed the ‘Nobelius Heritage Park’.
In 1993 the ‘Emerald Museum’ was constructed and opened in the ‘Nobelius Heritage Park’. The Museum is an archival repository and display centre for a wide range of items that relate to both the history of the Gembrook / Nobelius & Sons Nurseries and the Emerald district as a whole.
The ‘Nobelius Heritage Park’ today preserves a number of historic structures and pieces of infra-structure, as well as a wide range of ornamental and native trees and shrubs that relate in some way to the history of the Gembrook / Nobelius Nurseries.
The ‘Nobelius Heritage Park’ also contains a number of different of plantings that commemorate other historically important, local, plant based industries such as the timber and eucalyptus oil industries, and the fruit, flax, lavender and rosemary growing industries.
This article is adapted from a presentation produced for the Nobelius Heritage Park and Emerald Museum by Gary Hearnes in April, 2011. It is based mainly on the historical research published in the book entitled ‘Nobelius Heritage Park : An Illustrated Guide’ by Jo Jenkinson (published by the Emerald Museum in 2002). The historical photographs used in the presentation were provided by the Emerald Museum and Chris Britton.