Chamber 28 - Garden
Chamber 1 - Tycos | Chamber 2 - Glenburn | Chamber 3 - Granny Smith | Chamber 4 - Newton | Chamber 5 - Brammley | Chamber 6 - Rome Beauty | Chamber 7 - Stewart | Chamber 8 - Democrat | Chamber 9 - Jonathon | Chamber 10 - Crofton | Chamber 11 - Five Crown | Chamber 12 - Snow | Chamber 13 - William | Chamber 14 - Display & Chamber 15 - Museum | Chamber 16 - Beurre Bosc | Chamber 17 - Winter Cole | Chamber 18 - Winter Nelis | Chamber 19 - Packham | Chamber 20 - Red Delicious | Chamber 21 - Pippin | Chamber 22 - Broom Park | Chamber 23 - Statesman | Chamber 24 - Bartletts | Chamber 25 - Emporer | Chamber 26 - Sheppards Delight | Chamber 27 - Golden Delicious | Chamber 28 - Garden | Garden in the middle |
Listed as Chamber 28 - Garden, even though it's not actually a chamber. It was still listed as such on maps. This area was located between Chamber 27 - Golden Delicious and Chamber 18 - Winter Neilis.
1993; the garden area before being fenced in, Chamber 27 (café) is the building on the middle left. (Photo: 1993-03)
Originally this space was an open area, and open to Peacock Road (that was next to the Packing House), when the renovations began in 1993 it was fenced in from the side of the Chamber 27, running along the boundary through to Chamber 18. A gate was included as part of this fence as a 'just in case' measure so vehicular access was maintained to be able to do maintenance from this side of the building if the need arose.
From 1993 - 2002 it was quite large, with a large amount of grass and gardens with a raised boardwalk between the two areas of the Packing House.
The covered roof above had originally come from Leisureland Fair which had been in Langwarrin until 1992 (visible in background of this advert). The covered portion of the walkways were not initially connected to the buildings at either end due to fire safety restrictions at the time requiring covered walkways to be alarmed in the same way as interior buildings. Given the massive financial burden of opening the Packing House some creative cost cutting was initially implemented.
The garden area from above. (Photo: 1995)
In 2002 Chamber 27 - Golden Delicious (the café) was extended into the Chamber 28 (the garden), almost doubling the cafe's floor space, but losing space in the garden. It however did make the garden more usable, with additional doors and windows looking out into the garden area. Additionally the area in front of these new doors was also paved.
The back of Chamber 18, and what was listed as "storage" on some maps, an office & additional storage space for the café was created here, also looking out into the garden.
During Elixir's tenure in the café from 2003 to 2013 the garden had been allowed to take on a more overgrown appearance, therefore following their time at the Packing House a period of clean up was necessary.
Then again following The Hart of Tyabb's time at the Packing House in 2018, again the garden required a tidy up to bring it back to state that was similar to the last time the garden had some care taken of it.
By 2023, the garden again had taken on somewhat of a wild style around the pots and other elements within the garden.
More information
Chamber 24 - Bartletts had at one point had a window into the garden, the books visible in the 1996 photo in the gallery above. When Chamber 27 was extended in 2002 this window was now inside the space. The opening remained, now overlooking the cafe.
As part of the lease agreement for the various businesses that took on Chamber 27 as a café, was to maintain the this garden space as it was when they began the lease, however the garden was seldom maintained to such a standard.
Other obscurities
Front Counter | Front office | Lay-by room | Internal phone system | Fire and emergency systems | Power, Heating and Cooling