Wilston House, Heritage villa in Newmarket, Brisbane, Australia.

Wilston House is a single-storey face-brick villa at 47 Watson Street, Newmarket, designed by James Cowlishaw and built from about 1876. Early photographs show verandahs on the west, south and east sides, a rendered masonry portico at the southern entrance, and a timber section along the north rear with a bay window and an attached timber kitchen wing. The core was later rendered and bay windows added to the two front rooms.

James Cowlishaw called for tenders for a villa residence at Enoggera for William Wilson in July 1876, understood to be Wilston House, built c. 1876 to c. 1880. Wilson, a Legislative Council member from 1874 to 1878, mortgaged the land for £5,000 to Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer in May 1884, and in October 1884 title passed to businessman and politician John Stevenson.

The home reflects how prosperous merchants lived and built their residences in the 1870s, showing the taste and values of successful business families. You can see this through the care taken with materials like cedar and slate, which were signs of wealth and status at the time.

The hilltop location allows you to explore the original architectural features, including the entrance hall and drawing rooms at your own pace. The elevated position also gives you views of how the property sits within its surroundings and the period design choices that were made.

During the 1880s, resident James Tolson experimented with freezing mutton on the property to prepare it for shipment to Britain. This unusual use of a private home reflects the experimental agricultural ventures that some property owners pursued during that era.