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About Pettys Orchard
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About Petty's Orchard
Petty's Orchard in Templestowe, Victoria, Australia, is among Melbourne’s oldest and last-remaining commercial orchards.
In 1853 Thomas Petty arrived in Australia from England and selected land in the Doncaster and Templestowe area. His grandson Thomas Henry Petty first purchased the property now known as Petty's Orchard, located between Homestead Road and the Yarra River, in 1911. Thomas Henry was the first of three generations of the Petty family to manage the orchard prior to Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works purchasing the property in 1981. Under successive Victorian governments, the site has since been owned and administered by Melbourne Water (from 1992), Melbourne Parks and Waterways and Parks Victoria (1996 to present). Information brochures produced by these bodies were produced in the 1990s, and can be viewed here.
The Petty's Orchard property occupies 44 hectares of land. It is leased to Yarra Organics, who operate it as a family business. Twenty-five hectares of the property is run as an organically-certified commercial orchard providing a range of fresh fruits to the market, which also incorporates an organic food shop and a popular cafe. The Petty's Orchard property additionally encompasses a wetlands area including a bird hide and remnants of a former fruit and nut arboretum.
Additionally, the property includes a four-hectare heritage fruits collection, originally referred to as the 'Demonstration Orchard', but now more commonly referred to as the Heritage Block. We at the Heritage Fruits Society manage and maintain the heritage fruits collection in the Heritage Block, which holds more than 250 varieties of old or rare apple trees and other types of fruit trees.
Melway reference: 22 A11
Further information about Petty's Orchard
Videos of Petty's Orchard
Drone fly-over video (May 2014)
Melissa King's "Gardening Gurus" visit (April 2016)
Photos from around Petty's Orchard and the Organic Shop and Café area
