THE ONLINE HISTORY OF GULGONG AND SURROUNDING DISTRICTS: 76 HERBERT STREET

Samper's Great Western Billiard Saloon,

(north-west corner of Herbert & Bayly Streets), Gulgong

Samuel Samper, a miner, bought the property at the corner of Herbert and Bayly streets, Gulgong, for 8 pounds in 1872.

In 1873 Samper turned the saloon into the Great Western Hotel and it was licensed to Frederick Francke at least until 1876. The building was pulled down in 1901.
Source: Information supplied by Baldwin & Davis, Research Gulgong (July 2006)

Former wine shanty, Cnr Herbert and Bayly Streets, Gulgong, 1960s

Source: Barbara Gurney

76 Herbert Street

Source: 'The National Estate' by Clem Lloyd, published 1977

1877 - Samuel Samper, a miner, transferred the property on the corner of Cnr Herbert and Bayly Streets to Mr William Thompson (of Times Bakery fame).
1885 - Mr William Thompson had a mortgage with the Bank of New South Wales.
1901 (Feb) - Mr William Thompson, under instructions from the Master in Lunacy*, transferred the property to Louis Roth of Wilbertree (the vigneron).
1901 (May) - Mr Louis Roth transferred the property to George March, a gentleman of Gulgong.
1902 (May) George Marsh mortgaged the property to Emily Jane Bentzen, Widow of Mudgee [Thorvald Alexander Bentzen of Mudgee died in 1894. His widow died circa 1934]
1909 - Mortgage discharged.
1912 (Aug) - George Marsh mortgaged the property to Fannie Augusta Stacy, Widow of Sydney [The widow of the late Mr. Beauchamp Stacy, of Mudgee, died in January 1934].
1914 - Mortgage discharged.
1914 (Jan) - George Marsh transferred the property to Albert John Thomas Murn of Gulgong (a fruiterer)
1914 (16 Jan) Albert John Thomas Murn** mortgaged the property to Eugene O'Connell
1914 (16 Jan) Albert John Thomas Murn mortgaged the property to Fannie Augusta Stacy
1922 - (12 Jul) Nellie Elizabeth Caldwell mortgaged to Eugene O'Connell, farmer
1922 - (14 Aug) Albert John Thomas Murn transferred the property to Nellie Elizabeth Caldwell of Roseville, spinster
1922 - Nellie Elizabeth Caldwell with consent of mortgagee leased to Hugh Augustus Dewar of Gulgong, Wine Shop Proprietor
1928 - Caldwell's Wines to Eugene O'Connell of Goodiman, Gulgong, Farmer and Grazier
1929 - Caldwell's Wines with consent of mortgagee leased to Walter Rane Cross of Gulgong, Australian Wine Vendor
1939 (Dec) - George Marsh mortgaged the property to Eugene O'Connell [Eugene O'Connell died in 1930].
1949 - [see NEWS ITEMS below]
1950 - Caldwell's Wines to Ada May Sybil Lincoln of Gulgong, widow
1952*** - Eric James Lincoln of Birriwa, Mail Contractor, and Kathleen Florence Page of Birriwa, married woman, (as joint tenants)
1961 - Juanita May Lincoln of Birriwa, widow
1967 - Owen Stanley Shaw of Rydalmere, Sculptor

Source: HLRV Vol-fol 150-213 and Vol-fol 3350-23

* Approaching Auctions.

In addition to the usual Mudgee stock sales there are some other important announcements in this issue. On Saturday, 13th instant, Mr. C. E. Hilton will sell at Gulgong the household furniture, billiard tables, bakers vans, harness, etc, quartz-crusher, and other mining gear, in the estate of Mr. William Thompson, of Gulgong, under instructions from the Master in Lunacy.

Source: Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954) Thu 4 Oct 1900 Page 13

** Albert John Thomas Murn had a Colonial Wine Licence in the Gulgong Licensing District from 1914-20. He also has a Second-hand Dealer's licence for Bayly Street in 1921-22

***1952 - ASSORTED TENANTS

We lived in the wine shanty from around 1952 until 1960. Our family lived in the top part which included the bar room, Dot (Mum's sister) and Pat Ryan and their family lived in the bottom part of the main building while across the breezeway was the second building in which, from memory, was the kitchen which we all shared. Also living in that part of the house were Isobel (another of Mum's sisters) and Lew McKenzie and their family.

There also was one other room which belonged to a man I never saw. We kids only knew him as Bill the Balt who lived out of town and who came to town infrequently, stayed the night and disappeared again. There was a large cellar underneath which was accessible from the road but dad locked it and we were not allowed to play in it. It would have made a great cubby house. We had four extremely large rooms which would have been the shanty while the Ryan’s had the residential section with living and bedroom areas. The counters in the bar room were magnificent back then and I would like to think they were still in good condition. A few years ago I was showing my wife and daughter where I lived and talking to the man who lived there [Owen Shaw] but he refused to accept that we had lived there until Mum came along and set him straight in no uncertain terms.

Source: Tony Farr

NEWS ITEMS

1920s - CALDWELL'S WINES

Dewar Brothers had Caldwell's wines for several years at a "corner" location until it was advertised for sale in 1928. In 1929 the business changed hands to Cross.
The Lincoln's, Eric and Ada, represented Caldwell's wines at that address from at least 1942-1949.

1929_______________________

1949_______________________

1951 - DEATH - MRS. ADA LINCOLN
The death occurred at her residence at the corner of Herbert and Bayly Streets on March 13, of Mrs. Ada May Lincoln, aged 67 years. For some years up till twelve months ago, Mrs. Lincoln conducted a wine saloon in the town for Caldwells Wines Ltd., and resided on the premises.
Source: Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954) Thu 29 Mar 1951 Page 18

Former wine shanty, Cnr Herbert and Bayly Streets, Gulgong

Later, Owen Shaw's house and studio, photographed in 1971

Source: Walkabout. Vol. 37 No. 10 (1 October 1971)

76 Herbert Street, Gulgong

Source: Photo by Maureen Hall

Former wine shanty, Cnr Herbert and Bayly Streets, Gulgong 1971

Source: Flickr JC Merriman

COUNTRY INNS.

All your pleasures will be non est
If you heed the landlord's charms;
Take the bushman's HAND - 'tis honest
but avoid the Bushman's Arms.

For vile, detestably dirty and woefully uncomfortable inns, commend me to those which abound throughout the length and breadth of New South Wales. We have all doubtless read or heard of the hovels at which unfortunate travellers are compelled to put up at in various parts of the world - of the filthy accommodation houses which exist in some parts of France proper and in Brittany everywhere, of the miserable vodka-shops of Central Russia, the ventas and caravan serais of Spain, the lager drinking establishments of Germany, and the gin palaces of Great Britain - but every one of these, perhaps, has a good start in point of respectability and cleanliness from the "lambing-down" and "setting-up" shanties which flourish in the back blocks of Australia. In almost every country in the world hostelries are subjected to a certain classification. In England there are hotels, inns, and public houses; in Spain there is the fonda (identical with a British hotel of the first order of merit), the posoda (or inn), and the venta (or drinking saloon); and in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and every other continental country, as well as in fact in the large towns and cities of Australia, the same rule holds good. But the back-blocks of the southern Continent are handed over almost in their entirety to shanty-keepers, by whose infamous dens of drunkenness and riot they are infested. One can hardly repress a shudder as he enters some of these detestable institutions, dilapidated in outward appearance, filthy to a remarkable degree! inside, and destitute of even the ordinary conveniences which a traveller naturally expects when he puts his foot across their threshholds. In the whole of the country districts of New South Wales there is a positive scarcity of good accommodation, for the entire energy of "Mine Host of the Traveller's Rest" appears to be exclusively given over to the occupation of serving out the vilest liquors which can possibly be distilled in this or any other part of the world. Even the bar is scantily supplied, and the intoxicants comprise no great variety. Rum, the national beverage, is accounted quite good enough for the average patrons of such places - the unsophisticated shearers and the unsuspecting stockmen. It produces intoxication, and thus the combined aim of both "lamber" and "lambed-down" is fulfilled. It is related, as a means of demonstrating the limited and inferior class of liquors kept in stock at bush "pubs" generally, that on one occasion a traveller in the north called for pale brandy at a bar, and was supplied with a decoction which he at once verbally pronounced to contain kerosene. "Hush," said the proprietor, "don't speak so loud'; why, they're drinking 'Farmer's Friend' in the next room."

I remember, some years ago, paying a visit to one of the prettiest nooks to be found in the whole of Australia-a village with most enchanting and picturesque surroundings, with a name as mellifluous as the songs of gay plumaged birds inhabiting its wooded recesses, with natural beauties and advantages not to be eclipsed, perhaps, in any part of the world; and rejoicing in a dark, rich, productive soil, then clad in a raiment of verdant grasses and mellow, golden fruit ripening under the soft translucent rays of the sun of spring - a spot where one would expect to find everything in keeping (not inn-keeping), everything lovely, 'perfect, and delightfully complete in its rustic simplicity. Its scenery was surely unapproached by that of the Tyrol, and unsurpassed by that climax of the beauty and interest of romantic Spain, Granada, "the paradise of Nature and of Art." Yet the only apology for an hotel in this sweetly-situated village was a perfect delusion and a snare - a rum-shop pure and simple.

Into a dingy bar, with a dirty floor and grimy windows, I went for a reviver, prior to asking for accommodation. Port wine they had not, the schnapps had just run out, beer was impossible, and brandy was expected on the morrow. "What have you in stock ?' I asked. "Well," replied the mistress of the house in an apologetic manner, "We have some very good rum, sir," and a most atrocious mixture it certainly was. On requesting the lady to afford me solid refreshment in the way of a meal, she answered that I would have to wait for a time whilst she baked some bread, and to this arrangement I had to assent. The loaf was placed in the ashes, and during time it was cooking, in walked a half-dozen burly countrymen, who drew their chairs round the fire, blew great tobacco-clouds, and then quietly expectorated on the very spot where the damper lay concealed, much to my disgust.

There was no escape, however, and for a couple of days I put up with this kind of treatment, seeking solace under such affliction in the beautiful cornfields and the delightful rural retreats close at hand. I have a distinct and vivid recollection of numerous other country inns, all more or less tarred with the same brush, but generally more so. Along coach routes, in particular, the accommodation for travellers is woefully inadequate, and no effort appears to be made by bush publicans to improve the condition of affairs. In truth, they charge three times its value for an ill-cooked meal, or a suspicious looking bed in a room with Egypt's plagues in every beam. Their patrons are here to-day and away to-morrow, and if they choose to turn up their noses at this class of fare and accommodation, then they may go without, for there is no other source from which to obtain better.

One picture rises before me of a prettily-situated country inn, clean and tidy in the extreme, where every attention was bestowed upon its not numerous guests by the cheerful landlady and the rosy-cheeked, buxom damsel who waited on a table provided with the sweetest of butter, the freshest of eggs, and the crispest of toast. This house (situated, it is but fair to say, in the small village of Gresford, near Maitland), really proved an oasis in a desert of the wretched species before mentioned, and consequently possessed a charm which fond memory has tenaciously and tenderly retained. It is this class of inn which should be encouraged and sustained, just as much as support should be withheld from its opposites, - and our legislators would confer a great boon upon the travelling public, and at the same time rid, the country of drinking dens of the worst character, if they made more stringent those provisions of the Licensing Act which relate to cleanliness, and by enforcing them, turn bush pubs into habitable abodes. Until this is done, disreputable houses will continue to exist and build up fortunes for their unscrupulous proprietors; shearers will be shorn of their hard-earned cash and poisoned with execrable grog; cheques will be liquidated, and the bushman who owned them be kicked off the premises, in company with a bottle of rum, either to perish by the roadside, or to be cured of the "blues" at the expense of the tax payers. These shanties will eke out their miserable existence at the expense of public comfort and general morality, and no effort to restrict their evil tendencies should be spared, if by its exercise such places can be swiftly and effectually demolished. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Source: Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1961) Sat 4 Aug 1888 Page 7