The property at 16 Crestway, Lilydale (otherwise known as Willowbank), is significant. Specifically, the form, scale, siting and detailing of the Edwardian style residence is of local significance. The front boundary fence, swimming pool, garage and later alterations and additions are not significant.

Willowbank is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the township of Lilydale and Yarra Ranges Council more broadly. It also has associative significance with the Poyner family.

Willowbank is a single storey brick residence built in an Edwardian style. Willowbank has associative significance as a house constructed for Joseph Moore Poyner

and Elizabeth Ada Poyner, members of the locally prominent Poyner family. The property’s grounds also formerly belonged to Edward Moore Poyner, an early pioneer of the

district.

 

Willowbank is historically significant to the township of Lilydale as an early twentieth century homestead constructed for a prominent local district family on a substantial farming estate prior to suburban development. As a property that formerly operated as a dairy farm, it is also illustrative of the major dairy farming industry that was prominent in the Lilydale district during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

 

Willowbank is aesthetically significant as an elegant example of an Edwardian residence. Key features contributing to its aesthetic value include its unique siting on a north-east axis, the single storey scale, return verandah with cast iron posts, tessellated tiles and decorative brackets and fretwork, original timber windows and associated joinery, front door and door light, and roof features including the Dutch gable, decorative gable end with timber panelling and finial, and rendered corbelled brick chimneys. These elements give it a formal and refined character, and its placement on a raised slope above street level further contributes to the building’s visual prominence within the streetscape.