Paul SorensenPrint Page

The railway bridge over the Great Western Highway between Wentworth Falls and Leura commemorates landscape gardener and nurseryman, Paul Sorenson.

Paul Sorensen (1890 - 1983) was a landscape gardener born and trained in Denmark. He had experience working in gardens in Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland, some of which were in large estates with extensive grounds. He arrived in Australia in 1915 and settled in the Blue Mountains in 1917.

He was celebrated for his distinctive designs and his mastery of the use of the dry stone wall technique combined with a skill in managing dramatic changes of levels in gardens. He is reported as being extremely versatile with skills in design, propagation, planting and the building and maintenance of gardens of a wide range of size and style. Paul recognised the local craftsmen as skilled practioners of the art.

From the mid-1940s Sorensen mainly constructed smaller gardens in the Blue Mountains but in the following decade he secured large commissions for country properties near Bathurst, Orange, Cassilis and Merriwa. During the 1960s Sorensen undertook commissions in country New South Wales, the upper North Shore of Sydney and the Blue Mountains: these included Boogadah, near Binnaway; Calleen near Cowra; Fernhill, Mulgoa; Mereworth, Berrima; Mahratta, Warrawee; and Blue Mist and Talltrees, Leura. He returned to Everglades, further developing the garden acquired by the National Trust of Australia (NSW) in 1962.

He continued to work until his death, but his son and grandson took responsibility for the physical work. Two of his later gardens were Aola, Peats Ridge, and Forest Park, Kulnura.

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