Art Nouveau Tile Detail of the Fireplace of the Dining Room of Billilla Mansion - Halifax Street, Brighton, Melbourne
Flooded with light from three full length windows, the Billilla dining room, built at part of the original 1878 house, is an elegant and impressive space.
As one of the showpiece main rooms of the mansion when guests came to be entertained, the dining room, adjoining the billiard room, is not only elegantly proportioned, but also elegantly appointed.
As the Colony of Victoria had no European history before white settlement, it was not unusual for wealthy landowners to decorate their homes in the styles of the great houses of Britain. This is evident in the Jacobean or Baronial style dining room.
The ceiling of the drawing room is decorated with ornate stylised Jacobean mouldings, whulst an impressive burnished copper chandelier is suspended in the middle of the room.
Like most of the house, the dining room was redecorated as part of the 1907 renovation of Billilla, and it features an Art Nouveau fireplace with stylised floral inset tiles.
Although not original, the room is papered in a rich and dramatic russet and gold patterned wallpaper in an Art Nouveau style, and you could easily imagine the original papers being equally as ornate and striking.
Built in High Victorian style in 1878 for successful gold miner Robert Wright, Billilla mansion was originally a thirteen room mansion erected on seven and a half acres of land.
When economic boom turned to bust in the 1880s, the property was purchased in 1888 by wealthy New South Wales pastoralist William Weatherly who named it Billilla after his land holdings and established a home there for his wife Jeannie and their children Violet, Gladys and Lionel.
The house was substantially altered by architect Walter Richmond Butler in 1907, extending the house beyond its original thirteen rooms and adding the Art Nouveau façade seen today.
After William Weatherly's death in 1914, his wife, who was much younger, remained living there until her own death in 1933. She bequeathed the property to her daughter, Violet, who maintained the home with reduced staff until her own death in 1972.
The property was purchased in 1973 by the Bayside Council who subsequently used Billilla as a historical house with guided tours, a wedding and events venue, a school and finally in 2009 as an artist's precinct in the property's outbuildings. Billilla is a beautiful heritage property retaining many of its original features thanks to its long private ownership still incorporating a stately formal garden and the magnificent historic house.
Billilla, at 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, is one of Melbourne’s few remaining significant homesteads, built on land which had originally been owned by Nicholas Were. The house has a mixture of architectural styles, featuring a Victorian design with Art Nouveau features and has exquisite formal gardens, which retain much of their original Nineteenth Century layout.
Billilla retains many original Victorian elements and a number of outbuildings still stand to the rear of the property including the butler’s quarters, dairy, meat house, stable garden store and coach house.
Billilla was opened to the general public as part of the Melbourne Open House weekend 2022.
Billilla was used as a backdrop in the 1980 Australian Channel 10 miniseries adaptation of Sumner Locke Elliott's "Water Under the Bridge". It was used at the Sydney harbourside home of Luigi, Honor and Carrie Mazzini.
Art Nouveau Tile Detail of the Fireplace of the Dining Room of Billilla Mansion - Halifax Street, Brighton, Melbourne
Flooded with light from three full length windows, the Billilla dining room, built at part of the original 1878 house, is an elegant and impressive space.
As one of the showpiece main rooms of the mansion when guests came to be entertained, the dining room, adjoining the billiard room, is not only elegantly proportioned, but also elegantly appointed.
As the Colony of Victoria had no European history before white settlement, it was not unusual for wealthy landowners to decorate their homes in the styles of the great houses of Britain. This is evident in the Jacobean or Baronial style dining room.
The ceiling of the drawing room is decorated with ornate stylised Jacobean mouldings, whulst an impressive burnished copper chandelier is suspended in the middle of the room.
Like most of the house, the dining room was redecorated as part of the 1907 renovation of Billilla, and it features an Art Nouveau fireplace with stylised floral inset tiles.
Although not original, the room is papered in a rich and dramatic russet and gold patterned wallpaper in an Art Nouveau style, and you could easily imagine the original papers being equally as ornate and striking.
Built in High Victorian style in 1878 for successful gold miner Robert Wright, Billilla mansion was originally a thirteen room mansion erected on seven and a half acres of land.
When economic boom turned to bust in the 1880s, the property was purchased in 1888 by wealthy New South Wales pastoralist William Weatherly who named it Billilla after his land holdings and established a home there for his wife Jeannie and their children Violet, Gladys and Lionel.
The house was substantially altered by architect Walter Richmond Butler in 1907, extending the house beyond its original thirteen rooms and adding the Art Nouveau façade seen today.
After William Weatherly's death in 1914, his wife, who was much younger, remained living there until her own death in 1933. She bequeathed the property to her daughter, Violet, who maintained the home with reduced staff until her own death in 1972.
The property was purchased in 1973 by the Bayside Council who subsequently used Billilla as a historical house with guided tours, a wedding and events venue, a school and finally in 2009 as an artist's precinct in the property's outbuildings. Billilla is a beautiful heritage property retaining many of its original features thanks to its long private ownership still incorporating a stately formal garden and the magnificent historic house.
Billilla, at 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, is one of Melbourne’s few remaining significant homesteads, built on land which had originally been owned by Nicholas Were. The house has a mixture of architectural styles, featuring a Victorian design with Art Nouveau features and has exquisite formal gardens, which retain much of their original Nineteenth Century layout.
Billilla retains many original Victorian elements and a number of outbuildings still stand to the rear of the property including the butler’s quarters, dairy, meat house, stable garden store and coach house.
Billilla was opened to the general public as part of the Melbourne Open House weekend 2022.
Billilla was used as a backdrop in the 1980 Australian Channel 10 miniseries adaptation of Sumner Locke Elliott's "Water Under the Bridge". It was used at the Sydney harbourside home of Luigi, Honor and Carrie Mazzini.