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Following the death of Walter Hay on 3 October 1907, the lease passed to Hay’s half-brother Francis Henry Atkinson
in 1910. Two years later Atkinson advertised that Mrs [Susie] Hay had opened Bay View as a boarding house. When
Atkinson died in 1915, the terms of his will allowed Susie Hay and her stepdaughter Martha to continue to run Bay View
and share any profits.32
John Donovan, the owner of nearby Laguna House, subdivided portion 171 into three following the transfer of the
property by mortgage in 1918. Bay View remained on twelve acres and returned again to the Hay family when it was
acquired by Leslie Albert Hay (a grandson of Walter) and his wife Lillian. After Les Hay’s death Bay View passed to
Lillian’s brother, John Jones, who ran it for almost thirty years.
By 1934 Jones had changed the name of the boarding House to Hillcrest Guest House. He had erected the new
boarding house around Bay View so that visitors could still be accommodated. The old building was gradually dismantled
inside the new as it had been attacked by white ants.
Hillcrest was a two-storey building with front and side verandahs on both levels, built in a U-shape, and in traditional
Queensland style -
 ‘photographs show a similarity to Bay View House chamferboard outer walls and a light timber frame with exposed studs
on the inside verandah walls, and a corrugated iron roof. Single skin tongue and groove internal walls, tongue and
groove boards for the floor and walls, and openfret work above the internal doors of the bedrooms upstairs to provide
extra ventilation. Downstairs, smaller rooms separated the large dining area from the front verandah.’ 33
Additionally, Noosa architect, John Mainwaring, believes the eastern wall, which had ‘peculiar fretwork’ could have been
part of Bay View House, and that ‘...some of the French doors...are the original Baltic pine articles which probably began
their lives as lumber in the bilges of early vessels from Europe.’34
In 1958 Jones subdivided his land, and the Church of England Diocese of Brisbane purchased Hillcrest Guest House
(now only two acres, six and four-tenths perches) to use as a conference centre.35 It was renamed Halse Lodge after his
Grace The Archbishop and officially opened on 1 May 1959.36
6.5.2         HISTORICAL THEMES
This place illustrates the following historical theme in the Noosa Shire based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s,
Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001
2 (g) Developing rural economies - encouraging the growth of tourism: tourist accommodation (boarding house).
6.5.3        POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The building is a place of cultural heritage significance because as an early boarding house from the 1920s, the place
provides evidence of tourist development at Noosa. It is also the only remaining modest boarding house of the many that
were once prominent along the beach at Noosa, and is probably only one of a few remaining such buildings in
Queensland from the period still used for its original function. As an example of a modest boarding house, a style of
accommodation which has been superseded by newer development and changing tastes, the building is able to provide
evidence of the development of tourist operations in Queensland since the early twentieth century. It is also significant for
its social value to visitors both local and international, as a place to go for a holiday at the Sunshine Coast, as well as for
residents as a local landmark.
On 24 June 1997 the building was entered in the Register of the National Estate under the Australian Heritage
Commission Act 1975. The building is listed as a permanent entry on the State Register under the Queensland Heritage
Act 1992. The National Trust of Queensland also listed it in 1994.
It is recommended that Noosa Shire Council consider assessment criteria a, b, g, h and e under the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001, as relevant to
this place.
6.5.4         INTEGRITY
The original building of the 1920s seems largely intact, although the kitchen and front entrance were added with the
1980s refurbishment, in a style imitative of the original building.
The Noosa architects Hurst and Harris refurbished the building in 1987. This work saw minor internal alterations to some
areas, but also the remodelling of the front entrance with some new construction, notably the addition of a modern
kitchen at the side. A new building for meeting rooms was also constructed behind the main building, and the showers
and toilets were modernised. This work won a National Trust John Herbert Award for recycling in 1990.



32
     Butler, p. 10.
33
     Butler, p. 16.
34
     John Mainwaring, ‘Noosa nostalgia’, Noosa Blue, no. 5, 1992, pp. 38-40.
35
     The Church Chronicle of the Diocese of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, vol. LXCIII, no 817, 1 September, 1958.
36
     Church of England Year Book (Diocese of Brisbane), p. 99.