Gunyaba (Merryfields), 1 Park Street, Ipswich

Merryfields was the home of the Hunter family who settled in the Ipswich area c.1860. Samuel Haslett hunter purchased the property, allotment 7 of Section 82, containing one rood and two perches of land on 21 August 1877. He took out a mortgage on 4 April 1879 from the Trustees of the Ipswich and West Moreton Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society for two hundred and eighty pounds. A little over seven years later, on 7 September, Samuel took out another mortgage for two hundred pounds.

The Hunter family, built a four roomed cottage called Gunyaba on a rise overlooking the town. The name Gunyaba means ‘House on top of the hill’. The little home was built of pit sawn timber. All of its fittings were cedar and the old kitchen and servants’ quarters stood separated across a passageway from the main building. Stables for horses and a shed for the carriage stood at the back of the house.

Architect, George Brockwell Gill saw Gunyaba when he arrived in Ipswich in the 1870s. When the Hunter's moved to a larger home in Quarry Street, Mr. Gill, his wife and child moved to Gunyaba. After G. B. Gill retired and moved to Coolangatta, Doctor Hamilton and his wife, Alice Wetta Patterson purchased Gunyaba (1947), and they changed the name to Merryfields. 'Merryfields' was occupied by the Patterson family until 2006.