A sunken fountain, a green archway and one of the city's most splendid Illawarra Flame Trees are the legacy of Paul Sorensen (1891-1983), a Danish landscape architect known for his beautiful ‘outside rooms’ at over 100 gardens across the state.

This hidden history at Glennifer Brae has been revealed in Wollongong’s first Blue Plaque.

As part of a NSW Heritage program, the plaque was officially unveiled on September 19 at a ceremony attended by Keira MP Ryan Park, Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown and David Walters, the grandson of steelworks founder Sidney Hoskins and his wife Madge, who commissioned Sorensen to design their garden after the Tudor Manor-style house was built in 1939.

“It's particularly apposite that we do honour his work as a landscape gardener here,” David said, “because it's the type of space in which he most valued working, with its wonderful open vistas and the long views, and the opening and closing use of trees and material in the landscape.

“Given the backdrop and the foreground, this place was perfect.”

In 1951, the Hoskins donated 46 acres of their estate to establish Wollongong Botanic Garden. However, their own garden was never fully realised, as the Second World War intervened and the family left in the early 1950s. But Sorensen went on to design other gardens for the Hoskins, working at the entrance to the Port Kembla steelworks, the Mt Keira Scout Camp and the Hoskins Memorial Church at Lithgow.

“It was a wonderful partnership between landscape gardener and patron, and they became friends,” David said. “So this place acknowledges that relationship.”

Representing the Hoskins Family Trust, David thanked Wollongong City Council for maintaining the heritage site and the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music (the Con) for giving it “a great deal of vitality”.

Manor house of music

Since 1980, Gleniffer Brae has housed the Con and the sound of young musicians at play regularly drifts across the lawns on weekday afternoons.

The manor house is one of “our absolute jewels in the crown” of Wollongong, said Lord Mayor Tania Brown, adding the Con’s students are the custodians “breathing life into it every day”, and also hinting this is something she’d like to hear more of.

“Seeing the young people come through is what makes it so special,” Cr Brown said. “I love when we have days when we can open this up to the music and sit along the tennis court, enjoying the jazz band, and it's one of the great days – and we need to do it more often.”

Trees for the ages, stone from local quarries

Set on the traditional land of the Wadi Wadi people, and once the site of a dairy farm, Paul Sorensen’s garden has survived eight decades. According to University of Wollongong records, his original works included transplanting Flame trees to provide instant shelter and shade. He also developed The Spinney, a collection of Azaleas under an existing grove of Turpentines and a sandstone flagging driveway.

At the back of the manor house was a formal garden with a fountain, children’s dolls house and dry stone walls made of local rock, a signature Sorensen feature.

While some of the original garden was lost as the property changed hands – from Hoskins family to girls’ grammar school to council event venue and Con HQ – Wollongong Botanic Garden’s curator, Felicity Skoberne, praised Sorensen’s “thorough approach” in design, ensuring a long life for his trees.

“Sorensen’s passion for beautiful specimen trees and contrasting colour is showcased here at Gleniffer Brae, with the planting of a spectacular Illawarra Flame Tree in front of the house beside a Jacaranda,” Felicity said. “Crepe Myrtles, Pencil Pines and Brush Box also featured in this stunning array. His selection has created many years of serenity for our visitors.”

“Every time I come here, the world slows down a little bit,” Ryan Park, Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast, said at September’s unveiling.

“For many people, this is a really special place, not just because of what Paul did and the beautiful natural landscape but, to be honest, I think it's a real spiritual place. It sits between the mountains and the sea. It is essentially a good descriptor of our community and where we're geographically located.”

English history of Blue Plaques

Blue Plaques date back 150 years to London, where the Society of Arts erected the first one in 1867 in memory of the poet Lord Byron. They are only in their third year in NSW but already the NSW Heritage team are thinking centuries ahead and taking a cautious approach to technology with their signage at the Glennifer Brae gates.

“There was some concern about putting something like a QR code, which had a shelf life, onto the actual plaque, which is meant to last forever,” said Maruschka Loupis, senior project officer at Blue Plaques program.

“So on every one of our plaques, there's a QR code to the side which visitors can scan, and it takes you to the Blue Plaques website. And then all of the stories of all of the plaques and their locations are there … Tech is wonderful, but you can't trust it for 100 years.”

'A particularly magnificent property'

Born in Copenhagen, Sorensen emigrated in 1915 then spent his life in Australia, mostly in the Blue Mountains, where he’s famous for creating Leura’s ‘Everglades’.

“I'm a huge fan,” said Maruschka, who travelled from the Sutherland Shire for the official unveiling at Glennifer Brae. “These gardens are some of our favourites to visit. It's one of the more accessible Sorensen gardens. 

“I'm a big fan of Paul Sorensen because of his outdoor living room spaces … it brings the inside out and the outside in, and it just feels like home. This is a particularly magnificent property because it has ocean views, it has mountain views, it has a duck pond with baby ducks in it. It's very special.”

Her favourite spot is his green archway. “It's absolutely gorgeous. You walk through and it opens the garden in front of you – and that's kind of a signature as well. He has one at Everglades, although it's rectangular so you feel like you’re walking into a picture.”

Blue Plaques aim to make history accessible to everyone.

“Our brief is that the plaque is always available 24/7 to members of the public for free,” Maruschka said. “So this is outside the gates … anyone passing by can see it, can read the story.”

Want more hidden local histories? Kiama Library has a Blue Plaque dedicated to Australian author, essayist and journalist Charmian Clift (1923-69). For more information, visit the government's website