Ayers House

Ayers House, originally known as Austral House, is a historic mansion on North Terrace in Adelaide, named after Sir Henry Ayers, a five-time premier and industrialist. The two-story building was designed in 1846 for the pharmacist William Paxton and built in the Regency style from local bluestone. When Ayers leased the property in 1855, it was still a small brick house. In the 1860s he had it expanded into a grand forty-room residence, which was completed in 1876. The building is considered the only surviving mansion of its kind on North Terrace and has been heritage-listed since 1980.

Inside, the rooms impress with hand-painted ceilings, stenciled wood paneling, and keepsakes of the Ayers family that reflect the wealth of the house's residents at the time. Sir Henry Ayers also had a cellar room built to escape Adelaide's hot summers, and during his political career he used the house for cabinet meetings, parliamentary dinners, and grand balls. It was one of the first properties in the city to be fitted with gas lighting. After Ayers died in 1897, the building changed hands several times and served a variety of purposes, including as a dance hall, a club for wounded soldiers, and a residence for nurses.

In the 1960s, the National Trust of South Australia succeeded in saving the building from demolition, as it was the last great mansion on North Terrace. In 1970, Premier Don Dunstan initiated its renovation into a cultural center with a museum and restaurants. Costumes, silverware, artworks, and the original gas lighting were put on display there. After a brief period in which the state's History Trust was to move into the building, legislation passed in 2024 established Ayers House as the permanent home of the SA National Trust. The government provided funding for modernization, so today the building serves as the National Trust's headquarters, preserving its historic significance for the city of Adelaide.