Wynona

In 1917, over half an acre was transferred to Maldwyn Douglas Davies. The Drysllwyn land was further subdivided and sold during the 1920s. Maldwyn Davies acquired additional parcels adjoining his original holding in 1923 and 1925. 

After serving in World War I, Maldwyn Davies returned and built Wynona in Cadell Street. Maldwyn Davies’ landholdings were located between Milton Road and Drysllwyn. Maldwyn Davies is listed in postal records as living in Milton Road from 1918-19, and on the title which consolidated his holdings, as living in Wynona in 1923.  The Drysllwyn estate map (1936) shows the land around this house having an access lane to Milton Road. It is quite likely to have been architect-designed, possibly by Claude Chambers who designed Drysllwyn. A circa 1928 BCC sewerage detail plan for the street shows the house on its large holding with a tennis court on the north-eastern side of the block.

It appears that Maldwyn Davies lived in this house until the early 1930s. After this time the house appears to have been rented, while Maldwyn (and his wife) perhaps lived with his (widowed) mother in Drysllwyn. At that time, he was an insurance manager. From 1937, Maldwyn D. Davies is listed as living in Drysllwyn. While the land immediately surrounding Drysllwyn and opposite it in Isaac  (now Bayliss) Street was offered for sale in April 1936 as ‘Drysllwyn Estate’ containing charming residential sites’ of around  ¼ acre, Maldwyn Davies retained title to the land at 46 Cadell Street until it was sold to Cyril and Ngaio Hartmann in 1950.

The Davies were an important family in the development of Auchenflower and well known for their philanthropy. William Davies was the first patron of the Auchenflower Bowling Club. The family were also involved in the local scout movement. All three of Maldwyn’s sons were members of the Auchenflower Boy Scouts. In 1927, William and Eliza Davies donated a parcel of their land to the local Boy Scouts club. This land is now the site of the Queensland Headquarters of the Scout Association of Australia. During World War II, the Davies family voluntarily vacated Drysllwyn so that it could provide a temporary home for Somerville House, the Brisbane High School for Girls, whose premises had been requisitioned by the American Army. This was the beginning of Drysllwyn’s significant association with the Methodist, and later Uniting, Church.

The house has a hipped terracotta tile roof which at each end of the ridge forms a decorative gable. It has chamferboard timber cladding and is raised on brickwork slightly above ground level. A verandah wraps around the right front corner of the house. The verandah entry is defined by a flight of brick steps and a small gable above an arched opening. Vertical battening fills in the gap between the arch and the verandah edge beam. 

The verandah has timber posts and decorative elongated timber brackets and a double rail-battening balustrade. The verandah space is at present enclosed by security screens behind the timberwork. 

To the left the house projects with a gable that is larger in size but similar to the entry gable. Within the wall below this gable is a set of casement windows with a generous tiled hood.

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans

2. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

3. Queensland Post Office Directories

4. J. Pearn Auchenflower the suburb and the name. Brisbane: Amphion Press, 1997

5. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

6. Watson, Donald and Judith McKay. Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994