Plenty of pubs in Gippsland

Gippsland had pubs a'plenty in the good old bad old days. Some held Colonial Wine Licences and some had no licences at all. Some were little more than log, slab and bark shanties.

The better hotels offered good accommodation, a fair standard of cleanliness and fair prices and measures. Logically, and fortunately, they were the hotels which tended to survive. Accommodation was a very important part of the publican's role in those days when travel was slow and difficult.

Gippsland has many hotels of more than passing interest to an historian. There is Taberner's at Wonthaggi and Robert Bain's original Berwick Inn, once the Border Hotel, is still going strong. The Robin Hood is back in business as a hotel and offers fine hospitality (including good tucker).

I might say immediately that I'm only referring here to the pubs I've visited. There are many that I have not tried yet, but I'm working on it.

The Criterion is one of a group of fine old hotels still serving the people of Sale. The Criterion has been classified by the National Trust and is now probably assured of the protection it deserves. Built in 1865 it was still not Sale's first hotel. The Club Hotel was built in 1856.

The Star, in Raymond Street, Sale, is another oldie. By 1890 it was going strong, verandahs were added, and then later removed when cars kept hitting them. The Star advertised itself as one of the best hotels in Gippsland with a good and well-watered horse paddock, good stabling and provender – and that was only for the horses. For the humans, it included baths in the list of facilities.

There were at least a score of others which have now disappeared, in most cases for good reason

Fitchett's Woolpack Hotel at Flooding Creek, as Sale was then known, was operating in the late 1840s and a few descriptions of this incredibly squalid hotel still survive. It became the Carrier's Arms for a while and was then used as a post office, a church, and then a mortuary.

Sale was also served by Breheny's Brewery but I know nothing about that. We now have craft breweries wherever we look and that was much the case in the 1800s, though there was not always much ‘craft' involved.

Down at the junction of the La Trobe and the Thomson, near the Swing Bridge, there was a wharf and a thriving little township with several hotels but nothing now remains of that settlement. The Swing Bridge itself is of enormous cultural importance. Classified by the National Trust, it was built in 1883 to allow the lakes and coastal shipping to make the way right up to the Port of Sale. Sale was hugely important in those day. The bridge is still in very good condition.

However, we were talking about hotels, were we not?

The Criterion is still a handsome structure and a fine hotel. The long verandahs and balconies still have the original iron lacework intact, while most hotels of the type have been ‘modernised' and have lost much of the character they once had.

There is a story that early in the century (the last one) a bolting horse towed a cart into the posts of the verandah, causing a section to collapse. It is said that the cost of the repairs came to more than two thousand pounds, a huge sum back then.

The hotel names were not always imaginative – there are countless towns with Commercial, Royal and Railway Hotels but in Gippsland the Star hotels were prolific. The Star in Sale was built in 1875 by George Hickox. The Star Hotel in Traralgon was a legend for more than a century but is now the Stellina Restaurant. Walhalla has a Star Hotel, another grand oldie cleaned up and restored.

Traralgon's grand old hotels have survived better than most. Duncan Campbell's Traveller's Rest (1858) is not among the survivors, alas, but in one sense it could be said to be. It was demolished in 1914 and replaced by the Traralgon Hotel, which in turn became Ryan's.

In Traralgon you might also call in at the Royal Exchange, dating from 1879, or the Crown or the Grand Junction, both dating from 1884. There is real history here.

The formal names were not always used. In Korumburra the Victoria Hotel was usually called the ‘bottom pub', Radovick's was the ‘middle pub' and the Austral was the ‘top pub'. This was a matter of geography, not quality.

The Port Albert Hotel is a very much a part of Gippsland's very colourful history. It came to Australia as part of a prefabricated dairy.

The Laird of Glengarry tried to establish a semi-feudal colony of his clansmen near Yarram in 1841 or 1842. The colony failed but the building survived.

In 1843 it was moved to Port Albert at a time when Port Albert was literally the ‘capital of Gippsland.

It was then moved to ‘New Port Albert' in 1844 and has faithfully served many generations of thirsty Gippslanders since. It is not noted for the purity of its architecture but is renowned for the warmth of its welcome.

Another Gippsland ‘pub' has survived, sort of, in a way, more or less. Rhoden's Halfway House once stood, or leaned, at Pakenham. Why it was called the Halfway House I do not know. It was in the middle of nowhere much, perhaps halfway between precious little and nothing much at all.

It was rough but sturdy construction. The walls were drop-slabs and were plastered on the inside. This was, let it be said, at a time when few buildings had internal lining, back in the 1850s. The roof was covered with wooden shingles.

Rhoden's Halfway House was moved and repaired after long service. Fully furnished, it now stands in the grounds of Old Gippstown, once the Moe Folk Museum. It should be safe enough there.

I like to think of it not just as Rhoden's but as a memorial to all the small wooden hostelries, some much better than others, which broke up the long journeys through Gippsland in the old days, the days when a lighted window meant a welcome and a little comfort among the darknesses of the bush.

There were many of them and they played as important a part in our history as did the their larger and more grand brethren in the townships.

History on show

Artifacts of historic importance will be on display at the Warragul and District Historical Society's Open Week later this month.

From Friday June 17 to Friday June 24, the society will open its doors at the Old Shire Hall on Queen St Warragul from 10am to 4pm each day.

Artworks depicting the region's earliest settler's homes and the old Warragul township will be on display, as will the works of popular 19th century artist Neville Henry Penniston Cayley.

Mr Cayley is known for his detailed bird paintings, and his son Neville William Cayley produced the well-known field guide 'What Bird is That?'. Artist and local entrepreneur Charles Henry Round's works also will be on display.

The paintings have recently been restored using a grant from the National Library and were also reframed in special archival materials.

The society began grant applications for restoration of items in 2015, which started with applying for a collection assessment. The final application for restoration was accepted in December 2020 and the society was allocated $10,550 for the work's completion.

Another artifact that will be restored for open week is a large board containing 122 photographs and names of the pioneers of Warragul and early settlers. It produced by public subscriptions and donated to the shire in 1911.

Society members said they were grateful to the Baw Baw Shire for supporting the board's full restoration and the organisation of its transport to the Archival Conservation at Kyneton Victoria. Society member Jo Dickson said the open week was an opportunity for everyone to learn about local history and may also be of particular interest to art collectors with an interest in historically significant pieces.