building due to the poor application of flashings around the pinnacles and gables. The most significant issues was found to be the roof-bearing timbers which had been sealed into the walls without proper ventilation and being of Oregon they had consequently rotted. The resulting four months of repairs by a workforce of between 30 and 40 was completed by July 1890 at a cost of more than £1,200. As both he and his wife were members of the congregation and Lawson an elder of the Presbytery of Otago and Southland these failings of his most prestigious commission must have felt highly embarrassing. When combined with the issues at Seacliff and the economic downturn they were sufficient to cause him to quickly wind up his affairs and depart for Melbourne on 8 May 1890. Final years In the final period of his life Lawson rarely designed alone. Once in Melbourne, he entered into partnership with the architect Frederick Grey. Together they designed Earlsbrae Hall, a large Neoclassical house at Essendon, Victoria. This is now considered by some experts to be one of his greatest works, though it must be attributed to the partnership. It has been thought that perhaps the house was begun before Lawson arrived, but he departed Dunedin on 8 May 1890, and the foundation stone was laid on 16 August 1890, so there was enough time to be appointed and design the mansion. The principal aspect of the design, the tall Corinthian portico, is practically an exact match to those on Lawson's banks in Oamaru, the pediment of the National Bank in particular is essentially repeated here. Often said to resemble a Grecian temple, the architecture of a bold double-height Corinthian columned portico is derived from the Greek Revival; the wrapping around the house on three sides, and incorporating a verandah, is also reminiscent of the plantation houses of the American Deep South . The cost of construction to the owner Collier McCracken was £35,000; it later sold in 1911 for just £6000. Commercial buildings which survive from Lawson's Melbourne years include the Moran and Cato warehouse in Fitzroy and the College Church in Parkville, which were completed in 1897. In 1900, at the age of 67, Lawson came out of his ten-year-long self-imposed exile from New Zealand and returned to Dunedin. Here he entered into practice with his former pupil J.Louis Salmond. A number of commercial and