The Classical Victorian Fireplace Overmantle of the Sitting Room of Billilla Mansion - Halifax Street, Brighton, Melbourne

            Although smaller than its grander Art Nouveau drawing room across the hall, the cosy sitting room of Billilla is no less beautiful as it is filled with light through a large bay window featuring Art Nouveau stained glass.

The Art Nouveau stained glass panels of the bay window and the wooden fretwork framing it are the only two features installed as part of the 1907 extension and renovation of Billilla.  The rest of the room is, like the Billilla billiard room, remarkably intact decoratively in fine Victorian style.

Even though it is smaller than the drawing room, the sitting room was still one of the showpiece main rooms of the mansion when guests came to call.  Elegantly proportioned and appointed, it too is a very femininely oriented room.  The ceiling of the drawing room is decorated classically inspired boiseries and garlands.  These are also reflected in bas reliefs along the plate rail and across the mirrored overmantle over the  black and white tile fireplace.

Above the white painted dado and plate rail, the walls feature panels of Art Nouveau wallpaper.  Although we usually associate the Art Nouveau period with the first decade of the Twentieth Century, it actually began in the 1880s, when Mr. Weatherly bought Billilla.  Mrs. Weatherly probably chose the more restrained, earlier style of Art Nouveau paper because it was just becoming fashionable at the time she moved in.  

The room is accessed by two sets of doors with glass panels and brass doorknobs. 

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.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / North Brighton (show map)

Taken on: July 30, 2022

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/4.5, 1/80 sec, 14.3mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/4.5
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	14.3mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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