Tulip farming in Australia

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 7

Tulip farming in Australia

An enterprising Dutchman, Cornelius Tesselaar, has converted his 15-acre farm near the little town of Silvan, 30 miles east of Melbourne, into an authentic comer of the Netherlands. He and his family are growing genuine Dutch tulips on their property, in the picturesque Dandenong Ranges. In spring and early summer, it is tulip time at the Tasselaar farm. Thousands ’of Melbourne motorists make their pilgrimage to “Little Holland,” either to admire the colourful splendour of the tulips in bloom, or to buy

some of the 50 varieties to decorate their homes. Mr Tresselaar, who went to Australia from Beverwyk, the Netherlands, in 1939, started the tulip farm in 1944.

a He is now the main supplier of tulips for the Australian 3 market. :, During flowering time, all i, Mr Tesselaar’s seven child- ■ ren, aged from 16 to 30, as

well as 20 other Dutch employees, help to pick the tulips. They ail work in their national dress, to give the farm an authentic Dutch atmosphere. Apart from tulip flowers, Mr Tesselaar is also selling tulip bulbs, and has more than a million bulbs in stock, the Australian Information Service says. The photograph above shows Margaret Tesselaar, right, and Corrie Tresselaar, left, picking In the tulip fields.