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The Australian pub is born
To paint a picture in words, a standard 1830s colonial public house was made up of the publican's quarters, taproom for the storage and serving of liquor, public room for the customer to consume liquor and food, a private parlour for hotel guests, accommodation rooms and outbuildings such as toilets, storerooms, stables and kitchens.
By the 1830s various liquor outlets had determined individual names. The term inn, tavern, hotel and public house generally described a business house that sold liquor. The names were brought from the 'old country' and adapted to Australian conditions. Each term has an individual meaning, although customary Australians have today bastardise the names:
Inn: Generally meant a place of accommodation where one could find a place to purchase liquor. They were usually stop over places for weary travellers in country areas, and before the days of the motor vehicle and railways, were also known as coaching or wayside inns - a place to service travellers, coaches and horses. Coaching inns sprang up with the popularity of coach travel in the 1840s. They usually had stabling facilities, coach house, black smiths, and stock paddocks for their customers, as well as providing a yard for fresh horses for the coaching companies. They also supplied home cooked meals for the travelling public. With better roads came the development of state of the art coaches and the introduction of timetables. With stabling for teams of horses and the necessary facilities for travellers the coaching Inn was of major importance to colonial life up until the dominance of the railways in the late 1800s. The stables were usually found in an enclosed yard with a high arch allowing entrance for the coaches turning off the main road. As villages developed into substantial townships the Inns themselves were extended, taking over neighbouring houses and adding another story, becoming quite imposing buildings and evolving into hotels.
Hotel: Described an up-market establishment where a 'better class of accommodation' was on offer. Wealthier settlers frequented hotels, which were usually substantial buildings providing parlours, public rooms and sometimes entertainment venues. Many small inns advertised their premises as hotels to attract wealthier customers.
Tavern: A business house where liquor was sold, and offered no accommodation. They were rare in the country and were popular in large cities. No licensed taverns operated in the Illawarra during the 1800s.
Public House: Was the general description for all of the above. European Settlement Europeans did not settle what was known as the Five Islands district south of Sydney until relatively late compared with other major NSW regional centres. The almost impenetrable Illawarra escarpment with its thick subtropical vegetation prevented an easy access into the district. Ironically though it was only for the magnificent timbers that Europeans first ventured into the region.
The Aboriginal population, the traditional custodians of the Illawarra, was soon to clash with Europeans and their customs - including their liquor. The Illawarra's first permanent white settler is said to be Dr Charles Throsby Smith, who travelled into the region 'overland' or from the west over the escarpment, in 1815. With his arrival Illawarra was on the map and land grants were marked out the following year.
However, the good Doctor was not the first white man to set foot in the Illawarra. Cedar-getters had been in the Illawarra for some time before Throsby Smith. They led solitary lives, cutting the prized red cedar and other valuable timbers from the region's abundant rainforests, shipping their timber from sheltered bays. The cedar-getters made make shift camps or shanties, reaping the profits of the Illawarra's forests, moving to greener pastures as they exhausted supply. The vessels, while exporting timber, would also deliver supplies to the remote district - including plenty of barrels of rum for the heavy drinking timber-getters.
Many of the sawyers would spend their earnings on rum, the preferred liquor of colonial Australia, and had drinking sessions that lasted days. A Sydney Morning Herald correspondent reported on 22 May 1834 that they "kept the district in a state of drunkenness and iniquity for years".
Governor Lachlan Macquarie, in an attempt to stop Aborigines from drinking, issued an order in 1818 prohibiting the giving of spirits to the native population. However, this had little effect and the original inhabitants were soon caught up in drinking binges. Sections of Illawarra's native population were reported to have regularly traded their government issued blankets for rum or liquor and alcoholism was rife amongst both the Europeans and Aborigines. The Australian newspaper stated on 5 July 1826: "gangs of sawyers have been in the habit of frequenting those regions [of the Illawarra], and disseminating drunkenness and other misery far and wide even adding to the contamination of the degraded aborigines."
The region's first overland link to Sydney, over the escarpment at Mt Keira, was built in 1821 when Cornelius O'Brien raised subscriptions for a bridle track opening the way for farming in the region.
Less than 100 kilometres from Sydney - the colony's largest settlement - the Illawarra was a lawless region, a refuge for escaped convicts, where the motto was 'every man for himself' until the government appointed William Graham as the Illawarra's first police constable in 1822.
What a shocking sight the cedar getters would have made while partying and consuming massive amounts of liquor for days on end. Baron Field's 'Geography Memoirs on New South Wales' described the Illawarra's cedar-getters' infamous 'rum parties' in 1823:
After all, it was not in the woods, where they [cedar-getters] lay scattered, that this rude and lawless community could be seen in all its lawlessness. The huts were generally from three to ten miles back from the boat harbour of Kiama, where the cedar was embarked. When a fair wind from Sydney was observed to be blowing, away would go the whole community to the beach. As there were quite a number of vessels in the trade, there was always sure to be one or more come in with every fair wind. And the first business of every boat was to send ashore the five, ten fifteen-gallon kegs of rum, which had been ordered by various parties. Sometimes there were seven, eight or ten of these kegs. And, no matter who ordered them, they were common property as soon as they touched the shore. If the owner was not there, when he came back he was told he ought to have been there; people couldn't wait for him. At the head of the little bay where the boats anchored there were a couple of acres of rich greensward, girdled around the close dark forest, save in the side next the sea. On this spot the kegs were set down on one end, and the other presently driven with an axe. The drinking vessel was a tin pint passed from hand to hand. The scene, which ensued onward through the day and night, and often for three or four days and nights in succession, might had furnished a painter with hints for a pirate's isle. Many of the men had with them convict women, who had served their sentences and were free, or had absconded from private service before coming free, and made their way down to these woods. And often-times, as the night wore on, and the fierce revelry progressed by the blaze of the wind-tossed fire, the sea breaking with harsh, monotonous roar along the pebbly beach, the boats heaving and setting as they rose their anchor within stone's throw, fighting going on at some fires, singing at others, women dancing with their hair streaming in the wind, or lying stretched on the grass in the stupor of intoxication - altogether a scene was presented such as, happily, human seldom furnishes.
From 1825 magistrates could only recommend the granting of liquor licences, with the Colonial Treasurer the final and binding authority as to the granting or refusing of any application. A ceiling on the number of licenses was put in place the following year, and lawful trading hours were fixed for the first time. A publican could not sell liquor after 9 pm on weekdays, and could not trade on Sundays. The civil Police supervised licensed premises and administered the liquor laws.
During the years after the establishment of the Colony of NSW the Governor appointed a number of justices of the peace who constituted a bench of magistrates to deal with breaches of the peace, petty larceny, drunkenness, and trivial complaints. Magistrates dealt with these matters in a summary manner without a jury. A number of unpaid honorary magistrate appointments were expected to perform their duties in conjunction with other positions.
Constable Graham's duty of maintaining law and order was an almost impossible task and to quell continuing complaints of disorder, Captain Peter Bishop of the 40th Regiment of Foot, with 30 soldiers, was engaged to meet law and order in 1826. Captain Bishop was made a Justice of the Peace and magistrate, enabling him to pass punishment to citizens in a court of law, and two voluntary police constables assisted the military keeping order in the Illawarra. It also made him able to recommend liquor licenses for the Illawarra region, although he never did so.
The Illawarra Stockade was established at Red Point, Port Kembla where a sheltered natural harbour provided easy access for boats.
Bishop, Illawarra's first military police magistrate, was born at Bishops Court, Waterford, Ireland before joining the 5th Northhumberland Regiment on 24 November 1803. He was promoted to captain in 1812 and transferred to the 40th Regiment serving with distinction in the Peninsula Wars and the Battle of Waterloo. He came with his regiment to NSW in 1824 and to Moreton Bay in 1825 with a detachment of troops and 28 convicts all with colonial convictions.
On his return to Sydney he was dispatched to quell disturbances among Aborigines in the southern districts after three stockmen were murdered and large numbers of Aborigines were assembling.
The Sydney Gazette reported that he came across a wanted chief and warned the government would not tolerate attacks on defenceless settlers and he had orders to 'destroy all natives if orders were disobeyed'. It was said to be the first occasion an expedition against the Aborigines had returned without the spilling of much human blood.
Bishop was made a Magistrate and sent to form a settlement in the Illawarra district in July 1826 when rumours of a French invasion were circulating. Bishop had a short stay in the Illawarra and was replaced by Lieutenant John Fitzgerald, of the 39th Regiment, the following year. Bishop returned to his regiment in Van Diemen's Land but did not accompany them to India and retired from the army in June 1829.
Little is known of his later life and it is thought he died in 1846.
The arrival of the law, however, failed to put a stop to the cedar-getters' heavy drinking, with illegal grog shops - hidden in the dense dark Illawarra brush - springing up to supply ample 'moonshine' or dangerous 'home brews', for which they could spend their earnings.
History does not record how many sly-grog shops or illegal inns operated in the brush country during these times - no doubt there were many. The need for licensed public houses became apparent during the late 1820s with the increasing permanent population.
Many 'tipplers' came before the law for drunkenness as alcoholism grew into a major problem in the Illawarra. The punishments handed-out for drunken related crimes were severe. Lieutenant John Fitzgerald, on 31 March 1827, handed down a sentence of 25 lashes to Charles Holden for being drunk, while Daniel Crawley received the same for fighting and drunkenness at the make-shift, harbour-side Wollongong court house.
The following year 368 settlers were said to inhabit the Illawarra when George Pitt D'Arcy, the region's first non-military magistrate was appointed. He held no prior military or civil office and commanded a constable and scourger to administer the whip.
Drunkenness was not, however, confined to settlers, convicts and Aborigines. Under the command of Lieutenant JF Butler one of Illawarra's two constables was dismissed in April 1828 for his fondness for the bottle. Constable John Jones (Toll) was branded a drunkard who was neglecting his duty. He was replaced by Constable George Bevis Harris.
To quench a growing thirst, settlers continued to bring, by boat, casks of alcoholic refreshments into sheltered bays along the coast. However preparations were underway to open the Illawarra's first legitimate public house.
Illawarra's First Pub
Illawarra's first known pub was in the home of George Tate Senior at Spring Hill, just south of Wollongong. His farmhouse was to the south west of the small port of Wollongong, overlooking Tom Thumb Lagoon, along the road to the Illawarra Stockade at Red Point, Port Kembla. A cattle breeder and farmer, Tate's customers included soldiers of the 39th Regiment, who had staff of a lieutenant, sergeant, corporal and 10 privates. Sharing farming and innkeeping occupations, Tate's best income, no doubt, came from the hard drinking timber-cutters.
George Tate was born in the parish of Bowden, Scotland in about 1794 immigrating to Australia with his wife Elizabeth in 1819. When he arrived in Australia he initially became the overseer on Surveyor John Oxley's farm "Kirkham" at Camden NSW.
Tate received a grant of 500 acres at Springhill, "Berkeley Vale", near Wollongong, on 22 June, 1824, on which he later opened a hotel, becoming the first recognised publican in the Illawarra. He carried on cedar getting and cattle breeding, principally raising bullocks for hauling timber.
Traffic passing Tate's house included sawyers on their way to and from the 'Illawarra Long Brush' - the home of the valuable red cedars at Jamberoo.
His first wife Elizabeth died in January 1827 aged 37 and was buried on his property at Spring Hill. After Elizabeth's death he re-married Mary Evans in Sydney and opened an inn at Spring Hill, Wollongong to cater for the growing traffic passing his property on 28 August 1828. Known as Spring Hill House, timber-getters and their bullock drays frequently passed his home taking their bounty to nearby Tom Thumb Lagoon or Wollongong Harbour for shipment to Sydney. Tate realised his home would make an ideal inn for the hard drinking sawyers, timber-carters and thirsty military, and, with the help from his new wife, Mary and his three children, Elizabeth Jnr, 12, John, 16, George Jnr, 15, Edward, 8 and Mary, 4, opened his pub in about 1828.
An article in the Illawarra Mercury of 24 October 1919, headed, 'Early Wollongong' by 'Old Timer', states that the inn was situated "on a track leading to where the cedar trees used to be so plentiful".
The track would become the main south coast road, traversing southwest from Wollongong through Tate's property onto Unanderra and Dapto to Jamberoo and Kiama. It was the Jamberoo area 'Old Timer' was referring when he mentioned the cedar trees. Jamberoo boasted the largest stand of Illawarra rainforest and was where the Australian Red Cedar, Toona Australis, grew in abundance.
Bullock drays, loaded with magnificent examples of Australian softwood timbers, were a regular sight at Spring Hill, as were raucous and rowdy timber-getters, mixing with local farmers, mechanics, servants, convicts and soldiers downing tin cups of ale, rum and other liquor. But most notable on their arrival at the inn were the sawyers, who usually worked in pairs for months on end alone in the wilderness. They would make an appearance every so often at Tate's house to celebrate their rich rewards from cutting timber. Many were on the run from the law and it was reported they spent all their earnings on liquor. Disorder, no doubt, was common at Tate's.
Alexander Stewart's reminiscence of the Illawarra, published in the Illawarra Mercury in 1894, says Spring Hill House had a license to sell liquor, although no record of Tate holding a license for the premises can be found. Official documents reveal that Tate's house was unlicensed. A letter, in 1830, from Illawarra Police Magistrate Lieutenant George Sleeman to the Colonial Secretary states that no licensed public house operated within 20 miles of Wollongong.
Interestingly Spring Hill House did not need a license to trade. Wayside inns, outside gazetted towns, were exempt from having licenses between the years 1818 and 1830 in an effort by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to encourage places of accommodation in isolated communities. Unfortunately many of these inns became booze houses and to tighten the legislation a condition was gazetted in 1827 forcing the innkeepers to provide "suitable accommodation for travellers, including at least two good sitting rooms". As Wollongong was yet to be granted the status of township, it can be safely said Spring Hill House was an unlicensed wayside inn exempt under the act, with a few drinking and bunking down rooms. Tate's trading hours would have been determined by his own discretion and by the presence of customers. It was probably more a grog shop than a house of accommodation. Reflected by the dismissal of Wollongong Constable John Jones for drunkenness in 1828, the law may have had little to do with keeping a critical eye on the operations of Spring Hill House.
Today, majestic Morton Bay fig trees, growing on the western side of Spring Hill Road, mark the location of the Illawarra's first known public house.
As the 1820s closed the Illawarra's population swelled to around 800 with additional convict labour arriving to build roads and other infrastructure. The region's brief rule under a civilian commander came to an end. Police Magistrate D'Arcy was replaced by Lieutenant Fitzgerald and the military returned to oversee law and order in January 1829.
The isolation of Red Point, Port Kembla forced the relocation of the military barracks to Wollongong where by April 1829 a new garrison was under construction with temporary canvas tents.
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