Tree nursery site

I'm planning a fruit & other tree nursery on my new property at Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia - hot summers, cold winters.

The site I prefer has virtually no direct or unfiltered sunlight. The sunlight that arrives comes through the gumtrees that surround the site.

This will be great for summers, which have numerous days over 40 degrees celsius (100F+).

Will it be too shaded for winter/autumn/spring?

We have a ton of nurseries in my region. I think it's because the weather is more mild than other parts of US, with plenty of rain. For some plants, you need a lot of heat and sun for the tree to fruit, but in a nursery, you want the young plants to survive. They are more tender than the grown up trees. They will fruit elsewhere.
John S
PDX OR

Sometimes the worst conditions make the best site for a nursery. For example, there is a guy in the Adirondack mountains who has a nursery where winter temps get down to -50f. So he is able to rightfully claim that he specializes in cold hardy trees.
If I were you I would focus on the toughest trees for your area, and let people know why your trees could work for them.

John Macgregor wrote:The site I prefer has virtually no direct or unfiltered sunlight. The sunlight that arrives comes through the gumtrees that surround the site.

This will be great for summers, which have numerous days over 40 degrees celsius (100F+).

Will it be too shaded for winter/autumn/spring?

It depends on the trees your planning to grow. If your growing and propagating plants that thrive in the understory, than that could be fine. But for a lot of pioneer species, they prefer a harsher sunnier environment, so you may have difficulty there. Certain trees can germinate and grow well in completely filtered closed canopy settings, but many cannot. Even some understory trees that you find in mature forests don't grow well as young trees in shade, but rather are engulfed by the overstory after they have grown a good bit. It all comes down to the species of trees your trying to plant and propagate.

An alternative to the heavily shaded forest is to use some sort of shadecloth to protect your nursery stock. You could also strategically plant some fast growing species like Paulownia to provide shade exactly where you want. Regardless, try it and let us know how it works out!