similar spectacular views to the south. The Everglades was, moreover, given its name by Georgina Stonier and it was she who first manipulated its environment, cleared some of the bush, planted exotics and fruit trees, creating terraces and a driveway supported by low stone walls. Henry and Una van de Velde did not acquire an empty canvas in 1933. The decisions which created the present house and garden were in debt to Captain Reynolds, Ernest and Ellen Nardin and Georgina Stonier. Nor were these decisions of the 1930s made unaided by van de Velde and Paul Sorensen. The van de Velde connections within the Sydney suburb of Manly and at Leura and the significance of Una van de Velde and her Maitland sisters are important antidotes to the simplistic and rather triumphalist story which centres around the two major male figures. Henry van de Velde, born in Belgium in 1875, was a modest but wealthy man of astute business ability with boundless energy and wide interests. His main business activity was as owner of Australian felt and Textiles, manufacturers of among other things Feltex Floor covering. Development of Everglades estate As a regular visitor to the mountains he decided in 1932 to purchase Everglades which previously had been an orchard destroyed by a bushfire in 1910. Almost immediately he began discussions with Paul Sorensen regarding the garden he proposed to build. The work was eventually to be extended to include the design of the house as well as the garden. Van de Velde spent every weekend tirelessly working in the gardens, frequently extracting labor from his many guests. Sorensen estimated that Van de Velde spent thousands on the development of the Everglades and considered him to be the greatest patron of landscaping gardening that Australia ever had. Paul Sorensen (1890-1983) commenced landscape training in Copenhagen in 1902 with the final two years of his training under the direction of Lars Nielsen, a leading Danish Horticulturist responsible for the design of much of the open space system of Copenhagen. This period included maintenance work at Villa Hvdore, the summer place of Queen Alexandra of Denmark. In 1914 Sorensen decided to emigrate and left for Australia. He managed to gain a position as gardener at the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba and began remodeling the garden there before (by 1917) setting up his own nursery and garden design business in the Blue Mountains. In