![1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills - for herald sun real estate](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Architect Rob Mills’ first-ever project, a house at 1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills, has been in his family for almost six decades.
Famous architect Rob Mills’ first-ever project, a restored Victorian High Country riverfront house, is for sale with $595,000-$645,000 price hopes.
The founder and creative director of the Melbourne and Sydney-based Rob Mills Architecture & Interiors, Mills is known for designing high-profile pads across the globe.
His Australian designs include several multimillion-dollar houses in Toorak and on the Mornington Peninsula.
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Mills’ studio has received a plethora of awards including a 2022 New York Design Award, two 2023 London Design Awards and, in 2024, two American Architecture Masterprize gongs and an International Property Award.
Last year, a Mills-designed Portsea clifftop mansion named Rovina sold off market for $23.23m.
In 2023, a Mediterranean-style clifftop mansion in Sorrento, also a Mills design, became the most-viewed Victorian home on realestate.com.au for the year, scoring more than 80,000 views.
Herald Sun readers voted the luxurious home as the number one house in the state, after it was listed for sale with a $20m-$22m asking range.
1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills, set on the Howqua River, was the first project a young Rob Mills worked on as an architect.
Although these grand residences are quite different to Mills’ first project, a two-bedroom house at 1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills, the architect said restoring and extending the home had influenced all his subsequent work.
“On every project, you learn about scale and so on,” Mills said.
“It taught me to find the balance between intimacy and large spaces.”
Years later, Mills designed the Portsea mansion named Rovina that looks out to the Portsea pier and Weeroona Bay.
Another Mills’ creation, this Sorrento house was voted the top Victorian home by Herald Sun readers, in 2023.
He restored and extended the house at the same time as establishing his architecture practice, while aged in his 20s.
The 1959-built home at 1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills, has been in Mills’ family since the 1960s.
It’s set on a 1787sq m block on the Howqua River, surrounded by trees and rolling hills.
Mills said his late father, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kingsley Wallis Mills, who served as head of orthopaedics at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, fell in love with the Howqua Hills area as a young man while working for the Forests Commission Victoria in the holidays.
The Howqua Hills home is kept warm and cosy by a fireplace in the living area.
![Kingsley Wallis Mills, father of architect Rob Mills, who is selling 1596 Buller St, Howqua Hills, with his six siblings - for herald sun real estate](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 768 1024"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The father of architect Rob Mills, Dr Kingsley Wallis Mills, bought the house in the 1960s.
The home is located on a block that measures 1787sq m.
Located 37km from Mansfield, Howqua Hills is a former goldmining area that was first settled by European immigrants in the 1840s.
Kingsley first acquired a share in the house in partnership with some other owners, but later bought them out.
Mills described the house as “very modest” and quite small prior to its restoration and extension.
He aimed to retain its period style during the restoration.
“I was doing this for love, I was so proud to work on it,” Mills said.
“The difference was kind of enchanting, when we built onto it, it was much bigger.”
The house’s historic ambience was retained during the restoration.
The tranquil Howqua Hills area is popular with campers, bushwalkers, fishermen and women and people interested in history.
The entire family, including Mills’ six siblings, helped out with labour during the building process.
Mansfield builder and carpenter Brian Harvey and carpenter Tony Cranston also joined the team, with Mills and Harvey going on to collaborate on several future projects.
Mills has several treasured memories of the house that is nowadays off-the-grid and features timber floors, a wood fireplace, a kitchen equipped with a wood stove and a spacious upstairs bunk bedroom.
The home was served has served as a retreat for the Mills’ clan since his childhood.
“I have the fondest memories of staying up here, Dad taught us skills including fly-fishing, bush walking, camping and lighting a fire,” Mills said.
Kingsley loved skiing and introduced his children to the sport.
Mills’ favourite memory of the house involves staying there when he was aged four or five-years old.
One day, his father’s Fiat car became bogged on the way to Mt Buller but afterwards, a young Mills enjoyed his first skiing lesson with Kingsley.
Architect Rob Mills. Picture: Supplied.
Mills, his siblings and friends often went fly fishing when they visited the house as youngsters.
Upon his death, Kingsley left the house to his seven children, including Mills.
“It’s just really rare, one of a few riverfront properties in Howqua Hills, there’s only about 15 freehold titles in the valley,” Mills said.
He has even built another house in the area that he plans to offer as a retreat on a few occasions every year, possibly twice each season.
Ray White Mansfield’s Natalie Moggach said buyers from as far away as Melbourne, Shepparton and NSW have inquired about 1596 Buller St.
Ms Moggach said the potential purchasers had included people who love fishing and those seeking a holiday home.
A wood stove features in the kitchen.
She said Howqua Hills properties were tightly held, with public records showing only six homes in the area have sold across the past decade.
Ms Moggach added that it was something of a rarity to find a home in the area that had been restored by one of Australia’s most well-known architects.
“It’s surprisingly well built, I know some of the huts down here are really old,” she said.
“It has been renovated to a really high standard.”
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