Paul Sorensen (landscape gardener)

Paul Edwin Bielenberg Sorensen (16 December 1891 – 12 September 1983) was a Danish-born Australian landscape gardener and nurseryman.

After leaving Europe due to the outbreak of the First World War, Sorensen lived in Australia for the rest of his life, mostly in the Blue Mountains.

For the last two years of this training, Sorensen was under the direction of Lars Nielsen, a leading horticulturist, who at that time was responsible for the design of much of the open spaces of Copenhagen.

During that same period, Sorensen did garden maintenance work at Hvidøre, which at that time was a summer residence owned by King Christian IX's daughters, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia.

He was employed by the landscape designers and contractors Mertens Bros.[1][2][3] Sorensen was later to state that it was the outbreak of the First World War (although his homeland Denmark was neutral) that motivated him to migrate to Australia, when he saw his French, German, Austrian, and Italian friends in Switzerland being recalled to their homelands for military service.

He initially found employment as a farmhand in Victoria, prior to getting work at Ormond Plant Farm propagating ferns.

During the 1920s, he created gardens in the area for the residences "Sylvan Mists", "Gabo", "La Vista" at Wentworth Falls, "Dean [or Dene] Park", and "Cheppen".

[14] During the 1930s, Sorensen worked for seed supplier Anderson & Co in garden design, while keeping his private clients.

Noteworthy exceptions were the rooftop garden that he created at Feltex House (an office building) or Henri van der Velde, in 1939,[2][20] and three garden projects associated with the Hoskins family; the Mount Keira Scout Camp;[21] the garden landscaped surroundings of the Southern Portland Cement Ltd's cement plant, near Berrima; and a Remembrance Drive of memorial tree plantings along the Old Hume Highway south of Berrima.

At "Mahratta" in Wahroonga, he redesigned and renovated his earlier garden to suit a new art deco style mansion built there for Thomas Alfred (T.A.)

[19] After the war, he constructed mainly smaller gardens, for country properties—including "Bethune" near Orange—and for houses in the Blue Mountains and on the Upper North Shore in Sydney.

[17][21] Sorensen's rooftop garden at Feltex House, Sydney, was lost when it was converted to office space in 1954; the original three-storey art deco style building was extended to nine storeys in 1961.

[23] "Invergowrie" retains a large garden by modern standards but due to some sub-division of the land is of reduced extent.

A signature feature was stone walling using local rock that may have been split or broken to shape but not noticeably cut with straight edges.

[38] He made use of the surrounding outlooks and natural vegetation and he did use large native trees—such as the Illawarra flame trees and coastal cypress pine at "Gleniffer Brae"—when and where it suited his design.

[11] At "Everglades", he created a small waterfall and "grotto pool" of natural appearance—clearly influenced by the natural watercourses of the Blue Mountains—and the garden has a lookout overlooking Gordon Falls and the Jamison Valley[39][3][40] Similarly, at "Leuralla", the garden overlooks the Jamison Valley.

This notion of planning for continuing change and development, over many years, was a novel and unusual approach, when Sorensen began his work.