Eyres House, Soldiers Hill, Ballarat

Eyres House is an historic residential property, located at 810 Ligar Street Soldiers Hill in the Victorian gold rush city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

[3] During the early to mid 1860s land between Howitt and Gregory Streets was also purchased from the Crown for what were to become the grand houses Trelawny, Black Hill, Ballarat, Linlithgow and The Grange.

The two allotments were sold to Vale's brother, Richard Tayler Vale (1836–1916), a bookseller, newsagent, investor and director of a number of gold mining companies,[9][10] in 1887, who also bought the adjoining Allotment 4 from Thomas Sanderson Walker,[11] the original purchaser from the Crown in 1866, when he had paid £25 for his acre on the corner of Ligar and Gregory Streets.

In 1901 Joseph Bryant JP [15] commissioned a fine residence to be built on Soldiers Hill, which, at the time, was on the outskirts of Ballarat.

Cream painted decorative timber features and elaborate fretwork, tall chimneys, leadlight windows and a Tudor type look, especially on gables, is very much part of the Federation style and is particularly evident at what is now Eyres House.

The only indication of the existence of "The Grange" is a short eponymous street leading into the houses and townhouses that now occupy the subdivided site.

Bryant had borne the brunt of the miners' anger during the Clunes Riots of December, 1873 against the importation of Chinese strike breakers.

Warnings were given those offending men to leave town ... 'They then marched to Mr. Bryant's home to demand his resignation as mine manager.

The company built a wide size range of oil engines which it sold across Australia and promoted under the Austral brand.

"A property known as the; Ballarat North Mansion, erected eight years, ago by Mr. Joseph Bryant, a mining investor, at a cost of £500, has been sold by Messrs. Chas.

During this time, the remaining balance of Allotment 3 of the property was transferred in March 1934 to Adam's wife, widow, Isabella Magdalene Ronaldson (Hood).

[35] Mrs. Fanny Jolliffe (Bowring) (1858–1935) of Newlyn, Victoria bought the property from the Ronaldson estate, which she owned during the period 1920 to 1922.

Arthur Stewart (1880–1946), mill owner[37] and produce merchant[38] from Newlyn, Victoria, bought the property in November 1922,[39] but were not able to have access for several months as there was an existing lease.

Mr. Arthur Richard Stewart, Justice of the Peace, was president of Creswick Shire [41] and then served two terms as Mayor of Ballarat[42][43][44] As was the situation with Joe Bryant in 1901, it was assumed that the property was owned by the "head of the family" Horace Laffer Lewis,[45] a mechanical engineer, who lived at "Balmoral", with his wife and their two children from about 1937, until his death in 1955.

[22] In the walled garden vegetables and fruit trees were grown, and is still an important facility for residents of Eyres House.