Ellis House

Statement of Significance

This is an idiosyncratic house and as such is not typical of a particular style, but is characteristic of houses built by British migrant owners around the time of the Great War. Those in Bayswater were generally not builders, but skilled tradesmen of various types and they built individualistic houses, often elaborated given limited resources, as they were completed over many years. Thus, the house is significant as the type of architectural accomplishment typical of British migrants.

The house is significant due to its association with the way of life of British migrants who frequently arrived in Bayswater to life in a tent and built their homes in stages.

It is also associated with the development of Bayswater and the outer metropolitan area generally around the time of the Great War, when such building was occurring in areas that were then rural, and is significant as a result. In Bayswater, most of the larger British built houses were in rural parts of the district in wide open spaces.

As a dairy farm house on land close to the riverbank, Ellis House was originally part of the agricultural landscape in that part of the district. When land in early Bayswater was subdivided, that closest to the river was generally sold in large allotments for farming.

The house is already visited by local school parties, thus giving it educational value.

It also has great social significance as a remnant of the Bayswater dairy industry. The area was once an important centre of metropolitan dairying. Few traces of the dairy industry now remain.

Original wooden farm houses built in what are now the inner suburbs of Perth are rare as they have been overtaken by later building, and are thus significant. As many were self-built, they are not typically the type of house which later owners wished to preserve. Ellis House, therefore, is a rare example of both a British self built house and a metropolitan farm house.

Physical Description

Ellis House is a timber-framed weatherboard and iron-roofed house with a hipped roof and verandahs back and front supported on full height timber posts. Windows are mostly triple frame with two opening casements and a fixed central pane.

The recent restoration and refurbishment has reconstructed the distinctive original viewing platform on the roof. It is understood that the platform was built to take advantage of the view across the river to the racetrack.

History

Ellis House was the residence on the dairy belonging to the Ellis family, British migrants of 1911. It is significant for its connections with the dairying industry, with the arrival of British migrants in the Bayswater Shire and their subsequent home-building and pioneering activities and with the present-day rediscovery of Bayswater's heritage.

Dairying was a major economic activity in the Bayswater Shire before the Second World War. The Ellis dairy was a small family operation, of a type described as "the billy-can brigade". There are few traces of the local dairying industry now remaining, and therefore it is an old homestead of great historic value.

Many British migrants came to Bayswater in the era from the Great War and built their own houses, reflecting great dreams and limited resources. Ellis House, with its individual touches, is a classic example. It represents George Fox Ellis' life work, and was built in stages over many years whilst the family lived firstly in a tent and then in a shack, before finally in two rooms of the house.

Ellis House has recently been restored and made the centrepiece of a landscaped area with a nature walk. In time to come, it will be part of the history of Bayswater's upgrading of the river foreshore and revival of its pioneering heritage.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.