77 MIDDLE RD, MIANDETTA

Home Hill at 77 Middle Road, Miandetta is a single-storey Federation Queen Anne weatherboard house with numerous extensions to meet the needs of a growing family. As a result, the residence features an assemblage of varying roof forms and period features with the core original house on bluestone foundations facing north. This elevation comprises a projecting bay window with gable; enclosed front entrance door with cast iron decorative treatments, and large wooden pergola above dolerite paving laid by Dame Enid Lyons.

A common feature throughout Home Hill is a series of double-hung windows, with clear glass lower sashes and multi-pane treatment to the upper section. The eastern elevation comprises an enclosed verandah with cast iron decorative treatment and French door opening onto an enclosed garden. This landscaped garden area was said to have been treated by Dame Enid almost as another room of the house (pers. comm., Tassell, 2010). This part of the garden contains two elements of the sandstone headstone from Joe Lyons original gravesite at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Devonport.

In the south-eastern corner of Home Hill is the Library and Dining Room, likely an inter-war extension to the main residence. Both these spaces feature extensive collection material relating to the public lives of both Joe and Dame Enid Lyons. At the rear of the property is a stone wall at a right angle attributed to Dame Enid. It abuts a small avenue of macrocarpa trees planted by the Lyons family. At the rear of Home Hill is a kitchen, original to the construction of the house in 1916 (Lyons (ed) 2007:10-11). The western elevation of the house incorporates the living spaces used by Dame Enid and her housekeeper in the later years of her life, and in recent years, the council caretakers' quarters.

The interior of Home Hill contains a museum collection of national significance but also decorative treatments to the walls and floors that date predominantly to Dame Enid Lyons' widowhood. The central hallway contains a filigree hallway arch with lotus flower and cloverleaf motifs, while the sitting room has a pressed tin ceiling with decorative plaster architraves, likely contemporary to the construction of the house. The sitting room painting scheme was said to have been designed by Dame Enid around a marquette, still hanging on the wall, of the exterior tilework for the ABC Hobart building constructed in the 1960s. A front bedroom contains artwork attributed to Dame Enid inspired by the need to cover up cracks in the plaster, resulting in a tree with limbs sprawling across the walls.

Home Hill is surrounded by extensive and well landscaped grounds. At the entrance to the property is a stone wall running beside Middle Road and Olive Court. The garden at Home Hill is largely the creation of Dame Enid Lyons herself. A small pond, garden beds and stone borders were created by Dame Enid often in her later years with assistance from her large family. A garage and bitumen carpark and driveway were constructed in 2009 for visitors to the home. No fruit trees from the pre-1916 orchard are known to survive.