Looking through the Private Dining Room to the formal garden. The Dining Room was redecorated by Paterson Bros. in 1890, and although renovated since, has not been fully converted to the present house style. Of all the rooms in the house, it is most faithful to the decorative scheme devised at the end of the 19th century.

The room conforms to the convention that the dining room should be darker than the drawing room. Patterned wallpaper, swag drapes, floral carpet, black mantlepiece, massive sideboard and large-scale canvasses all contribute to the Victorian atmosphere.

The skirting boards are particularly high. Only the ceiling decoration resembles the style of other rooms. In the Paterson scheme the colouring of the ceiling mouldings was much more variegated, and the wallpaper was in soft tan or old gold style.

Almost all the furnishings, including the cedar and mahogany extension table and the side chairs, were made by James McEwan. The curtain rods, finials, rings and brackets are in cedar. On the cedar and mahogany sideboard made by McEwan is a collection of silver plated ornaments.

The black Belgian marble mantelpiece is identical to those in the State Dining Room. The Belgian marble clock on the mantelpiece, by the Melbourne craftsman Kilpatrick, is flanked by incense burners. The six branch brass light fitting dates from the 1920s. The paintings, by Australian artists, are on loan from the National Gallery of Victoria.