Marylands history is part of Victoria’s history. From when it was built in 1927 it has accommodated so many Victorians over at least four generations, that it has significant memories for many of our guests or their families. It has been a tourism icon ever since and it is our job to keep it that way.

Marylands was the first of five guest houses built by Eric Dowdle in the 1920’s. He built them to accommodate the massive increase in tourism demand at that time. Until then, there were homely little guest houses in Marysville, but the main industry in the area remained timber and sawmilling. With the advent of better roads and transport, more and more people came to visit this picturesque area thus creating a tourism industry.

Marylands was built with features now regarded as necessary but were unusual for the time, including: hot and cold running water in all rooms, indoor bathrooms & toilets. Electricity was installed and generated on the property with water from Steavenson’s River. State electricity did not reach Marysville until 1955.

The original swimming pool was served by water diverted from O’Leary’s Creek. And flowed directly through the swimming pool and then back into the creek !

Dowdle operated Marylands and the other members of the "Mary Chain" until 1952 when Marylands was purchased by the Haycraft Family. Jack Haycraft built what we now know as the "garden wing" in the 1960’s and continued to operate Marylands until 1981.

After a partial renovation in the late 1980’s, it was purchased by Michael McNamara in 1991. Since then we have built the indoor pool area with the Wychcross room (named after the first house ever built on the site in the 1880’s) and in 1995 built the new wing to include 20 more bedrooms and the conference facilities including the Haycraft Room named after Jack Haycraft, the longest serving owner of Marylands.

New gardens have been created and extended over the total property of just on seven acres.