Myrniong 50 Beach Road, 54 Beach Road, 44 William Street and Subdivision of larger Beach Road blocks

Myrniong, 50 Beach Road is a large single storey, brick and tile house with an asymmetrical facade designed as a late example of the Federation Bungalow style of architecture. Myrniong is located on the north-east corner of the junction of Beach Road and Palm Street, Bunbury. The walls are painted brick. The roof is hipped with a prominent and finely detailed gable to the main frontage and clad with tiles. The verandah has a broken back tiled roof and is supported by timber posts with a simple scalloped timber valance between posts. There is a timber and glass door at the side entrance and timber framed windows along the front façade. There is a limestone pillar and iron wall to the front boundary line. There is a chimney with chimney pots evident. Both street frontages of Myrniong have a large garden with rose bushes, mature trees, numerous shrubs and an extensive lawn. The place is included in the Heritage Council's State Register of Heritage Places and a section of the physical evidence description (compiled by John Loreck Architect in 1999) included in the assessment documentation is included below as it includes a detailed description of the interior of the place: "Internally, the finishes consist typically of carpeted floors, plastered walls and fibrous plaster ceilings, without cornices. The windows have curtain pelmets of timber with a central simple geometric motif. The main rooms are embellished with timber shelves on decorative brackets. The entrance hall addresses Palm Street, is aligned east-west and is entered through a pair of doors with leadlight in the upper panels. On the south wall, about 1.6 metres above floor level, a timber shelf, with a double bullnose, is supported on simple timber brackets. A picture rail is located 2.7 metres above floor level. The hall has a segmented arched opening, the springing points and head being about 2.1 metres and 2.4 meters above floor level, respectively. Immediately beyond the arched opening are two doors to the right leading, respectively, to the second and main bedrooms. At this point the hallway ends and a passage runs off it at 90 degrees. About halfway along the passage are two doors, leading to the third bedroom and bathroom, respectively. At the end of the passage is a door leading to the dining room. The second bedroom has exposed tongue in groove floorboards, and a pair of sliding sash windows with six panes per sash. The main bedroom has a pair of windows identical to those in the second bedroom. Both pairs of windows are arranged to each side of the gable addressing Beach Road, reinforcing the symmetry of the Beach Road elevation. A pair of French doors lead on to the east verandah. The French doors have four panes across, two for each door, and five panes high. The top two panes have a segmented arched head, with timber spandrels to each side, with a horizontal door head. In the south-west corner of the main bedroom is a timber shelf, similarly detailed to the hallway shelf. The third bedroom has a pair of French doors, identical to those in the main bedroom. The bathroom has a carpeted floor with a quarter round skirting. The walls to the shower recess are tiled up to a height of about 1.8 metres above floor level. A laminated plastic splashback is located over the basin and the same material is also used on the basin side of a partition that separates the basin from the toilet. On the toilet side of the partition, wallpaper has been applied. A sliding sash window is located in the eastern wall and has four obscure panes per sliding sash. By proceeding left or north from the entrance hall, one arrives in the living room. The living room is aligned with the axis running east-west. The hallway door has, on the living room side, a decorative cornice at head height, as do the adjacent French doors that lead on to the front verandah, near the entrance doors. The cornices consist of a double bullnose shelf supported by console brackets. Centrally located on the wall addressing Palm Street are two narrow sliding sash windows, with four panes per sash A split-system air conditioner has been mounted in recent times halfway between the pelmet and the ceiling. Centred on the north wall is a brick fireplace with a jarrah chimneypiece. The chimneypiece consists from bottom to top of a lower shelf sitting directly on the top course of brickwork, another shelf about 200mm higher supported on console brackets, and jarrah panelling surmounted by an a cornice at door head height. To the east of the fireplace is a shelf detailed similarly to the hallway shelf. Adjacent to the shelf is a timber door, leading to the dining room, with the bottom two panels identical to the other internal doors. The upper part of the door has eight glazed panels arranged in two rows of four, one above the other. At the end of the passage, is the dining room, with exposed floor boards about 100mm wide. The window to the north has two horizontally sliding sash windows.

Myrniong was built in 1925/26 for Maria and George Rose. It was named after Myrniong, a small town between Melbourne and Ballarat in Victoria. The land was originally part of Lot 105 which was subdivided in 1897 to form Lots 106 and 107. Although the land changed hands a number of times, it was not developed until it was purchased by Maria Rose and her brother-in-law George Rose in July 1925. By September 1925, the land was solely in Maria’s name. Maria commissioned architect Eustace Cohen to design a house and the contract for construction was awarded to local builder, J G Hough and Sons. The house had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, living room and dining room. It was completed in 1926.

Maria Rose died on the 24 August 1943 and Myrniong was left to her son, Robert Henry Rose III and John Strachan. In 1945 they sold the house to Ivor Thomas Williams, a farmer from Boyanup who had lost his right hand in a Volunteer Defense Corp activity and decided to retire to Bunbury. Williams did not stay retired for long and opened a toy shop and became a joint owner of Julianne restaurant. As a result he sold Myrniong in August 1946 to be closer to both businesses. The new owner was Forrest Ramsay Hay, a petrol station owner and a Mayor of Bunbury from 1959 to 1963. Hay renovated and added extra rooms to Myrniong including a laundry and a garage. On 2 May 1949 he sold the place to Rodney Forster Johnston, a nephew of Maria Rose. At about this time Johnston added two new garages. In 1961 the title was cancelled and the lot number changed to 206. In 1998 the house was still owned by Johnston and his wife. The place continues to be a private residence. [George Rose was the son of an early Bunbury farmer Robert Henry Rose I and since 1893 had been managing Parkfield, their large family property at Australind. Maria's father was Thomas Hayward, one of the earliest storekeepers in Bunbury and a partner of Robert Henry Rose I at Parkfield. Maria married Robert Henry Rose II in 1883 and they lived on his farm Roelands on the Collie River. After his death in 1900, Maria continued living at Roelands with her seven children. Within two months of purchasing the land in Beach Road, George Rose transferred the property to Eliza who at this time was living on another Rose property called Carlaminda in Ferguson.] This history is partly based on the Documentary Evidence in Heritage Council of Western Australia, ‘Register of Heritage Places: Myrniong’ prepared by Natasha Georgiou, 1999.

54 Beach Road

54 Beach Road is a single storey timber and tiled house constructed as a late example of the Federation Bungalow period style of architecture. The walls are timber framed and clad with timber weatherboards to dado height with fibre cement sheeting above. The roof is hipped and clad with tiles. The verandah is under a continuous tiled roof supported by timber posts. The symmetrical front façade has a central front door with side and fanlights flanked on either side by timber framed casement windows. There is one face brick chimney with chimney pot evident. There is a carport addition to the side. The house is situated at street level and there is a brick pillar and timber picket fence to the front boundary line.

54 Beach Road was built in the 1940s. Lot 207 was vacant land owned by William Gibson between c 1920 and at least 1941. By 1951, a house had been built on the lot. At this time, it was owned by William and Muriel Elliot and was numbered 15 Beach Road.

44 William Street

44 William Street was built c 1903, is a single storey weatherboard and iron house originally with an asymmetrical facade designed in the Federation Bungalow style of architecture. The walls are timber framed and clad with timber weatherboards. The roof is hipped with a small gable to the front and clad with corrugated iron. The verandah is under a broken back corrugated iron roof supported by square timber posts with decorative timber details and a simple timber frieze. The verandah originally wrapped around the sides of the building but has now been infilled by a garage to one side and a projecting front room to the other. The front facade has a central timber door with side and fanlights flanked on either side by timber framed double hung sash windows. There is a painted and face brick chimney evident and no fence to the front boundary line.