Ayers House the last of North Terrace grand mansions of Adelaide elite made rich by 19th Century copper mines

Ornate painted finishes and the state dining room are among features of Ayers House that became a National Trust museum.
Image courtesy National Trust of South Australia

Ayers House became the last of North Terrace, Adelaide, 19th Century mansions, once occupied by those who grew wealthy primarily of the back of the colony’s copper mining boom. Among them, Henry Ayers loved entertaining this elite with grand balls.

Ayers, five times premier of South Australia and a wealthy industrialist, lived in the house  from 1855 to 1897. Original plans for a two-storey mansion at 228 North Terrace, previously called Austral House, were developed in 1846 for Adelaide chemist William Paxton.

In 1855, Ayers leased the nine-room brick house and transformed it during the 1860s into a bluestone Regency mansion designed by George Strickland Kingston. It was one of the first Adelaide properties fitted with gas lighting.

During Ayers's parliamentary service, the house was used for government ministry cabinet meetings and state dinners.

In 1897, Ayers died, and, in 1909, after an Adelaide Club ball at the house, Henry Newland proposed the club buy the property. Plans were drawn up but abandoned. Eventually, it was sold in 1914 to Arthur John Walkley and Henry Woodcock's company, Austral Gardens Ltd. They built a dance hall, The Palais Royal, on its western side and entertainment areas on the east.

Since then, the house has had many uses, including a club for injured soldiers from 1918 to 1922. The state government bought it in 1926 to house and train nurses. It ceased being nursing quarters in 1969.

In the 1960s, the National Trust of South Australia campaigned successfully to save the building from demolition. In 1970, state premier Don Dunstan overrode his cabinet colleagues to save the mansion's from being demolished. Dunstan instigated a renovation of Ayers House as a tourist and cultural centre that included a museum and fine-dining and bistro restaurants. At this time, much of the house was conserved to original condition. Dunstan engaged the National Trust to conduct the museum.

Ayers House was taken over by the National Trust of South Australia and used for corporate functions, receptions and as a house museum, showing three levels of Victorian-era grandeur. It displayed costumes, silverware, paintings, furniture, costumes and other memorabilia from the time of the Ayers family. The original gasoliers were still in the large state dining room and among many important decorative features were ornate painted finishes and examples of trompe l’oeil on the walls and ceilings of all rooms. The house museum tours traced the social history of the period and life for Ayers House occupants both “above and below” stairs.

Ayers House was restored by Clive Holden, a decorative and heritage specialist, who worked on its extensive stencilling and woodgraining. 

In 2021, the state government announced that its agency, the History Trust of South Australia would replace the National Trust in the building that would be given a $6.6 million makeover. The National Trust closed its museum at Ayers House as it left the building in September 2021.