George Griffeth
(Photo courtesy of Somerville & Tyabb
District Heritage Society)
George Griffeth
George Griffeth, and his brother Charles, were born in the State of New York, and arrived in Australia, in the 1880’s.
In 1890, they established Two Bays Nurseries and Orchard Company in Moorooduc.
In 1908, they transformed part of the Annesleigh Estate, in Bungower Rd, turning an area covered with timber and rubbish into an orchard of 70 acres.
In 1927 the company exported 212,000 fruit trees to Argentina as part of the worldwide exportation of their product, and employed 60 workers.
By 1931 the Two Bays property consisted of 500 acres of orchard, and 100 acres of nursery.
Two Bays Company boasted a cool store that could accommodate 15,000 cases of fruit.
This cool store still exists, albeit in an altered form, as the Moorooduc Cool Stores, on the corner of Moorooduc and Eramosa Roads.
George and Dora Griffeth built their home, ‘Two Bays’, now in Two Bays Road, Somerville, in 1904.
Their son, Charles Melbourne Griffeth, who was a Mornington Shire Councillor at the time, was killed accidentally when his car rolled on him as he tried to start it, on News Year Eve, 1930.
There is a Griffeth family plot at Mornington cemetery.
Moorooduc Cool Stores, cnr Eramosa Rd & Moorooduc Hwy.
Two Bays Orchard and Nursery
George Griffeth and his brother Charles, were the
proprietors of "Two Bays Nurseries and Orchard Co."
Moorooduc, established in 1890.
They also owned citrus and vine nurseries and orchards
on the Murray River, at Nyah.
This photo shows part of the Orchard, from Mount Eliza.
By 1931 the Two Bays Property consisted of 500
acres (200 hectares) of orchard and 100 acres (40.5
hectares) of nursery.
The Company exported fruit trees, sending some
212,000 trees to Argentina in 1927.
At the same time it branched out into cider-making to
supplement the fruit and nursery aspects of the
business.
This photo shows an orchard block containing 60,000
yearling Jonathon apple trees.
