Para Para House
Gawler

  

 view from front hall

view from front hall


front hall

Front Hall


diningroom

Dining Room


diningroomceiling

Dining Room Ceiling

dining room table

Dining Room Table

Extracts From Conservation Plan


Entry

The Entry is located immediately inside the front door, and leads directly into
the central Ballroom. Double sliding doors in the north and south walls lead to
the Dining and Drawing Rooms respectively. The doors and skirtings retain their
original wood-grain finish and gilded linework. The cornice and ceiling rose
retain coloured decoration, that appears to date from the time of the 1870's.

The walls are painted in a single tone. It is considered likely that the
ceiling and walls were decorated in greater detail, similar to the Dining Room.
The floor is carpeted.




Dining Room

The Dining Room has retained its painted decoration dating from the 1870's.

The integrity of the Dining Room is exceptional.

The painted decoration in the Dining Room is considered to be of exceptional
quality and is rare, with only several examples by the same artisan in South
Australia. The importance of this internal decoration generally makes an
important contribution to the significance of the House.

It has been suggested that the 1873 painting of Para Para was the work of the
Scottish firm Lyon and Cottier, more particularly their employee Charles Gow.
Gow is also considered responsible for the painting of Ayers House in Adelaide.

Although there is no documentary evidence to prove this, there is a weight of
circumstantial evidence clearly set out in Taylor's history of Ayers House. The
work is "world-class", of such high quality that it could only have been done
by "a firm of well-practised, trained and highly talented decorative artists."

Several of the motifs used in Ayers House are known to have been designed by
the firm and the similarities between the schemes in Ayers House and Para Para
- the motifs, colours, line work on the doors and the geometric line work
elsewhere - suggest they are the work of the same person.

The firm established business in Sydney in 1873 with Lyon and two assistants,
Charles Gow and Andrew Wells, coming from Scotland. It is likely that Gow
completed the work at Para Para whilst in Adelaide and before he began work on
Ayers House. It is also possible that Gow was responsible for painting Sir
Edwin Smith's house, The Acacias, now Loreto Convent. These three interiors
rate very highly among the few existing painted decorative interiors of grand
South Australian buildings, public or private.




 

       

 
 

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