In the nursery industry of Australia, Robbie Engall was one of the good ‘old fashioned’ growers, who apart from growing good quality citrus and roses, stood out as a decent, likeable bloke, with a touch of lovable larrikin thrown in for good measure.
Robbie’s whole life was devoted to the growing of citrus, fruit trees and roses. In 1995 Engall’s Nursery celebrated it’s 50th year. The last 50 years has witnessed many changes to the industry he served so well.
History
Robbie Engall was the son of the late Bill Engall, who was also a nurseryman, growing citrus, fruit trees and roses in Carlingford Road. Robbie went to school at Carlingford Rural School along with several other well known identities in the nursery game such as Ray Eyles, Wally Watts, Don Campton, Ray, Doren and Barry Catt.
Robbie worked after school to get pocket money and on Saturday he used to work for Ernie Pye, delivering blocks of ice, and also for Les Banks, the bread carter. When Robbie turned 15 he left school and went to work for his father at the Carlingford Nursery.
In those days, the Engalls had another growing area also in Carlingford and to transport plants between these two points Robbie used to tie them in bundles and carry them on the push bike or Shanks Pony. Bill Engall eventually bought a utility which solved some transport needs. According to Ray Eyles it was not unusual during the winter months to see the ute parked at Epping Station and loaded with parcels of roses and citrus trees.
Bill Engall died when he was only 49, leaving Robbie, aged 26, and his mother the job of running the entire business.
In those days the work was a lot more physical as fruit trees, citrus trees and roses were grown in the open ground necessitating the need for hand weeding, hoeing, digging and lifting the plants by spade.
Citrus
Although roses and fruit trees are still grown in the ground and then dug up for sale, citrus are not. In fact it is hard to imagine that such evergreen plants ever were grown in this fashion.
Once the citrus had reached the desirable size they were dug up and had the soil washed off them. They then had their roots dipped into a bath of mud to help stop them from drying out. After that, they were wrapped in straw and newspaper and were then ready for transportation which was usually by rail. When the plants were packed this way they would survive a good three weeks.
The next major innovation in the growing of citrus was the advent of the tins, usually old kerosene or prune tins. Possibly one of the worst jobs that the old nursery workers had to do was to clean out the tins, cut the tops out of them and then punch about four drainage holes into them. As the edges on these tins were razor sharp, they had to be bent over which was a fun job. Robbie said that because in those days there was no such thing as ‘potting mix’ everything was planted in soil dug straight out of a paddock. This meant that each plant in a tin weighed around 25kg (55lb). Eventually tins were phased out and plastic bags took over. All labels for the plants were hand written.
Robbie said that the single greatest change he witnessed in 50 years as a nurseryman had been the introduction of proper potting mixes for the growing of plants. The other great change was the introduction of plastic pots which came about in the early 1980s.
Over the years Engall’s Nursery introduced new varieties of citrus. One of the most successful was the Lemonade Tree in 1988, but other milestones included the standard cumquat and more recently the seedless mandarin.
Robbie Engall died on Monday 11th August 1997, aged 67 and the nursery industry in Australia will miss him greatly. Robbie’s son Mark, wife Faye and other family members will continue operating Engalls nursery.
Further information
Engall’s Nursery is open seven days a week at 155 Carlingford Road, Epping NSW 2121, phone: (02) 9876 2177.