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By Fitzroy
It will be easily understood that the advent of many thousands of gold seekers
and others to Rockhampton and Canoona aroused a great spirit of adventure
throughout Australia though the rush itself was very generally named a “duffer.”
Though the bulk of those who came for the diggings were hastening back south
as rapidly as they could, there were others who saw opportunities opening
up not only in the embryo town, but in the whole district, more particularly
in a westerly direction. It is not too much to say that of those who came
several hundreds remained with a determination to give the place a thorough
try.
The Government had sent up surveyors to lay out a township, and it was resolved
to follow the model of Melbourne, with wide main street, and each section
divided by a narrow lane. The work was carried out so smartly under the direction
of A. F. Wood, that the first sale took place in November, 1858, and many
of the purchasers desired to at once build.
By this time and the rush had stopped, but not so very long, and for the
Grand Trianron, with a Captain Sykes and others, had arrived in October. However,
ships were going back crowded with disappointed men, and hundreds were going
overland, walking in big numbers, partly for safety against the blacks.
Those who had remained in the new town had doubtless envied the rapid manner
in which the Parker's were making money at the Bush Inn, and it was not unnatural
that hotelkeeping was one of the first enterprises that several of the new
arrivals turned their attention to, though there were others who started storekeeping
and forwarding agencies.
During 1859 quite a number of hotels were built, and a few of which had some
pretensions to being comfortable hostelries. But the climate of Rockhampton
was provocative of thirst, and the more some men drank the more thirsty they
became, and thus the bar trade assumed considerable dimensions, and encouraged
others to start hotels. There appears to have been no restriction in granting
licenses, and in some instances licenses were granted to premises almost contiguous.
The first difficulty was in getting timber which had to be bought from their Maryborough, and did not arrive nearly fast enough for those eager to build. Three Frenchmen-Mous. Thozet, Peue, and Perry-the writer was informed by the late G. P. Pilkington-were the to start a sawpit near the town. They went up the river some little distance and operated on the Leichardt tree, which has a soft yellow wood.
Several hotels were erected in 1859, but so far as the writer could ascertained,
the Alliance Hotel was the first to be opened. The land had been purchased
by A. Thozet, and he engaged men to start building with the timber his compatriots
were sawing from the l
Leichhardt trees. The building was covered with slates and this was the only
place except the old Custom House so covered. The reasons why slates were
not more generally used was that the expense was greater than shingles or
iron and the slates retained the heat to a much greater extent. Shingles were
more generally used for such purposes, corrugated iron not having become the
vogue at that period.
The Alliance Hotel had a good appearance, and soon became very popular with
bush workers, particularly those who earned their living on horseback-stockmen,
drovers, mailmen, and people of that class. It was near the saleyards, courthouse,
and other activities, and at night dancing in the long dining room produced
a little excitement. The house always did a good bar business, but the names
of its landlords have been legion. The Thozets retained the ownership till
they all died out. It is now the Supreme Court Hotel, one of the fine East-Street
hostelries.
The class of business done at first changed many years-ago, when galloping half-broken horses up and down the streets ceased, and mails were carried by trains and coaches instead of horse back.
Rockhampton Hotel.
The Rockhampton Hotel followed quickly after the Alliance Hotel in 1859.
It was built on what is now Victoria Parade, and about 100 yards further up
the river frontage than the Criterion Hotel. It was built to the order of
John Ward, one of the most remarkable men among the early arrivals. He speculated
in all manner of schemes, and, as one could hardly go wrong in purchasing
land, he made money rapidly. He put up a very good building for that period,
one-story, close to the ground. No other hotel building exceeded it for appearance
and comfort, and Ward and the house was well patronised. In 1861, Joseph B.
Skardon, one of four brothers, arrived from Sydney, and taking a fancy to
the Rockhampton hotel, gave Ward £2,500 for it.
It is quite probable that Ward realised that the site of the hotel was rather
to far up the river bank for business and the prospect of the town going further
down. Any way, the price paid was not excessive for a big premises returning
a large revenue. Skardon improved the hotel, and in 1864 assisted one of his
brothers to build a large hotel at the Retro Creek, on the old Peak Downs
Road, and about 20 miles from Clermont, that building proved a white elephant
and the proprietor died.
Joe Skardon had another piece of bad luck, for in 1866 the Rockhampton hotel was burnt to the ground, and it was never re-built. The allotment was vacant and for many years, there being nothing but charred stumps to show were the hotel had been.
During 1859, or at least early in 1860, there was erected Tattersall's Hotel
at the corner Fitzroy and East streets. The writer is not quite certain about
the builder, but among the first landlords was a man named M’Canley
and then Fred Gregory. Now at this time the population of Rockhampton was
only about 500 persons. This is pretty well proved by the fact that when the
census was taken on April 1, 1861, but the population was only 698. Of course
there was a floating population-comers and goers-who spend their money freely,
but it will be obvious to everyone that the provision for the consumption
of intoxicating liquor was made in a most liberal manner.
Within about 50 yards of each other, at the upper end of the town, were for
hotels-The Criterion, Alliance, Rockhampton, and Tattersall’s. These
hotels were all built before 1860 had ended, and there were others, as well
be shown.
Tattersall’s Hotel also claimed to make special provision for the horsey
class, and as there were sale yards in connection with the hostelry, there
were occasions when a large business was down.
There were numerous landlords, till at length in the eighties Joseph Evans
built the present commodious two-storey premises and named it the Royal Hotel.
It always did a good business, but like other hotels its character changed
as the habits and avocations of the inhabitants altered.
In 1859, a well-known identity of those times, William James, who had been
in business in Sydney, and had been attracted to Rockhampton by the rush,
purchased the allotment at the corner of William and Quay Streets, and thereon
erected what he named the Golden Fleece Hotel. At the time it was the first
hotel in that direction, and was somewhat isolated, but apparently the many
landlords made a living, and then the town steadily extended in that direction.
When the name was changed to Commercial Hotel the writer is not certain,
but it was probably when “Old Bill James”, to give him the name
he was known by, sold out to Hart. Not long after Alderson went to Mackay
and opened a butcher's shop, and Hart moved to a hotel at Bowen, then known
as Port Denison.
The Commercial Hotel passed to M. Moses, ends and then to John Cramp in 1866,
and next to Miss. Eliza Pearson, and then on to many others till the licence
was allowed to run out. The land laid vacant for some years till finally Mrs.
Leah Johnson built the present attractive hostelry that sets of the corner
to perfection, the place becoming one of the favourite resorts in Rockhampton,
being both quiet and convenient to the business portion of the city and for
shipping.
It was almost certainly in 1859 that Charles Wakefield built the Fitzroy
Hotel in Quay-Street where the bonded store now stands. He was in Rockhampton
at the time of the Canoona rush, and probably it was on the same piece of
land that he had his first temporary “shanty” that the hotel was
erected. The building was a fairly large and pretentious for that period and
more than one landlord held the opinion that this particular hostelry was
the leading one of the budding city. It was not told 1862 that the first,
Govenour, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, paid his initial visit to Rockhampton.
He was provided with temporary quarters at the Fitzroy Hotel, and this fact
caused and the proprietor to add “Royal” to its name.
If the stories told of the banquet that night are true, the proceedings were
a less decorous than such functions usually are. The story goes that a lady
not unconnected with the management, who had formerly been a professional
dancer, was invited to give a display of her agility on the cleared banqueting
table, having first discarded her dress and ample crinoline. The display may
have been more marked by vigour than grace, but it was none the less electrical
in the enthusiasm it aroused.
W. G. Gardiner succeeded Wakefield on his death, and he too succumbed to a hot summer, and, was followed by M. Moses, and John Ward, the latter of whom married the widow Wakefield, and soon after the licence was allowed to run out.
Most of the hotels already mentioned aspired to be first-class, keeping either
a first and second table, or only a first. William James, having disposed
of his interest in the Commercial Hotel, conceived the idea that pastoralists
visiting Rockhampton would prefer a residence on Athelstane Range, whither
a few prominent residents had already taken up their abode in residences which
were cool and roomy and from which a splendid view could be obtained.
Mr. James therefore erected a hotel on the Upper Dawson-road and named it
“The Squatters Hotel.” The new premises may have been attractive
enough as a temporary dwelling, but Mr. James soon found that the squatters
of those days, many of whom were single, liked to be where the fun was going
on, and that a distant view of the Bersekers soon lost its attractiveness.
In a sentence the Squatters’ Hotel soon proved a financial failure,
and one night in 1863 (if no mistake is made) it was burned to the ground.
Even in those good old days there seemed to be a special fatality in connection
with hotels, so many of them were accidentally burned down at night time.
The amount of insurance on the premises is not well remembered, but no subsequent
effort was ever made to rebuild the place, and but few now remember that there
was ever a hotel on that road beyond Egan’s.
 |
| The Commercial Hotel in the early 1870's |
Another very popular hotel, whose many landlords did not apparently aspire
to be considered high class, was the Commercial Hotel at the corner of Quay-lane
and Denham street. These premises were built in 1861, when there was such
a lot of hotels being erected. It must not be forgotten that in the early
sixties the bulk of the business of the town was carried on in premises in
the lanes of today, and not in the front streets. Thus some of the hotels
had their bars facing the lanes or little streets as they were then named.
Why these premises were named the Commercial Hotel is not clear because there
was another commercial Hotel at the bottom of William street. The two names
alike were not so confusing as they might have been because the hotels were
more frequently named after the landlord than under the licenced names. This
hotel was first kept by a man named M’Caskell, and was at first known
as the alligator Hotel, because the landlord had a live alligator on exhibition.
Later George Gannon, who had come from Gayndah at the time of the rush to
Canoona, took the place, and it received the colloquial name of Gannon’s
Hotel. At the rear of the bar, that is, along the street towards East-street,
was built a music hall, and the spot at the corner, where Edgars’ jewellers
shop now is was Ward’s butcher’s shop. All the other corners were
vacant-Stewart’s, the Post Office, and Oxford Hotel.
This music hall was the only place in the town for some years where any regular
entertainment of that nature was to be found, the Cornstalk and Theatre Royal
not yet having been erected. The admission was sixpence, and that also paid
for one drink. There was a reception out front for placing the glasses, and
waiters out taking orders and bringing in refreshments. There were generally
one or two professional singers or dancers, but really the audience provided
its own amusement, and sand and danced and recited on the stage. Quite often
good singers were found in this way, and if the audience could join in a chorus
to mind, the more it was enjoyed.
At one period this hall was named Scandinavian Hall and was for some years
in charge of Tom Bevis. This man, who came from Sydney in 1863, used to sing
Australian topical songs by “Thatcher” a popular song writer and
vocalist in New South Wales and Victoria in the roaring fifties. Diggers,
bushmen and others were greatly attracted by the rebuking songs, and Tom Bevis
was engaged by Gannon as manager. He sang a popular song “Billy Barlow”
much in vogue at that period, and Tom got the name of Billy Barlow, and most
people thought it was his real name.
When the “Scan” was ultimately put out of court by the “Cornstalk”
and Theatre Royal, Tom took up sign writing, scene painting, and became the
town crier. Tom was a genius in his way, and if the writer is not mistaken
he still lives, though he must be ninety years of age. Tom was always a worker,
and was a good example to all of what can be done by honesty and thrift.
The hotel changed hands many times and for many years was kept by the late Dan Briggs, O’Hara and others, the hotel portion being shifted into East street.
Another hotel which had quite a maritime flavour about its title, was the Clarence and Eagle Hotel-the Clarence and Eagle being the names of the first two steamers that came up the Fitzroy River. The exact date of the arrival of the first steamer is not known to the writer, but as Captain Rundle, the first Harbour Master, arrived at the end of 1858, and set to work to survey the river and erect beacons and buoys-without which the steamer would risk the navigation of the river-it was probably late in 1859 or early 1860.
The Clarence and Eagle, on different occasions, were in command of Captain
Champion, a mariner particularly well known along the coast of Australia in
early days. Captain Champion, seeing how rapidly Rockhampton was getting built,
secured a piece of land in Quay-street, just above “Avonleigh,”
the residence of Dr. D. O’Brien. There he had a hotel built, and it
was opened under the above name in 1861. The gallant captain put in two ladies-Mrs.
Harrison and Ms. Genery-as joint landladies.
The house was much frequented by seafaring men for a few years, but Mrs.
Genery married George Wilson, who had a butcher’s shop at the corner
of Fitzroy-street and Quay-lane, and a few years later the migrated to Townsville,
then becoming an important town. It is in the writer’s mind that the
Clarence and Eagle was eventually pulled down and the licence ran out in the
late seventies.
 |
| Queens Hotel on the corner of Denham Street and Quay Lane |