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Melbourne's Early Taverns  

Some Curious Names

By RAMBLER.

JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER

established Melbourne's first   hotel. Built of wattle and wood, it boasted six rooms, and   its tariff was two guineas a      

week, for which was returned   the usual service of a boarding house and    

hotel and "mental recreation of a high order." Twelve newspapers, seven magazines,    

and a choice collection of fiction and

poetry were provided

by Fawkner's Royal Hotel.        

Inns were fairly plentiful in Melbourne   in the 'thirties. In Collins street there was the Lamb Inn, a roystering house for stock- men, as was Michael Carr's Governor   Bourke Hotel close by. Queen street had its Royal Highlander, kept by James Con-         nell. It was a rude structure, but an im-

provement on the sod built hut kept by   Michael Pender, whose wife served the       drinks across the rickety counter, while   her husband kept his bullock team busy on       the roads. These and several other taverns     were situated right in the heart of early   Melbourne. By the end of 1839 eighteen   hotels were catering for the settlers.

It was some few years later before the   really picturesque hotel appeared. Once   adopted, however, the idea of giving to taverns distinct airs of personality was soon     being generally exploited. Probably the most picturesque of the period was the Glas- gow Arms, near the old General Post-office,     in Elizabeth street. It made a feature of a   house sign, which illustrated a gilded tree   of many branches and a profusion of foliage,   to which was added a bird, bell, and a fish,     and beneath was versed the legend: -    

"This is the tree that never grew,  

This is the bird that never flew,   This is the bell that never rang,    

And this is the fish that never swam."      

Another novel advertising design was adopted by the Labour In Vain       Hotel in Fitzroy. It exhibited a signboard depicting a black baby in a tub   being scrubbed by an old woman. It was intended to suggest that the labour of washing a "nigger" white was a Labour in vain. Later another hotel was erected on       the opposite corner and for its advertising-   mark a similar signboard was employed, but with this difference, that the old woman   had washed a part of the dusky infant's back white. Appropriately the hotel was named the Perseverance. For many years the two houses carried on trade; then the       signboards disappeared . . . . As a conse- quence a later generation resident in Fitz-     roy wondered why the two rival hotels were so named. To-day, strangely enough,   the Perseverance is, as a new building, one   of the finest in the district. On the other hand, the Labour In Vain was delicensed     and wrecked about five years ago - a triumph for optimism.

Stolen Lime for Flour.

Perhaps the most oddly named tavern was the No Good Damper, a little roadside   building about seven miles on the Mel- bourne side of Dandenong. It came by its     name in a curious manner. A settler, jour-   neying with his waggon well loaded into the   bush, had pitched camp for the night at a   spot adjacent to the Dandenong road. Dur-       ing the night a tribe of aborigines visited the camp, and stole off with a quantity of lime. In the morning when inquiries were made, the settler, shown a fricasse of dough- like composition, was informed by the head       tribesman that the stuff was "No good, damper," which was not to be wondered at               since lime had been used for flour. The   story went the rounds, to finally settle as a       name on the little roadside inn.    

Many hotels of the early day assumed distinct characteristics to the young com-      

Contributions of photographs, sketches, and articles of general interest, with or without illustra- tions, are invited for publication in the Camera Supplement. Rejected contributions will be promptly returned, and a brief statement of the reason for the rejection of literary contributions will be given in the columns of the Camera Supplement.

munity of Melbourne. Men, not neces- sarily drinkers, spoke of their favourite   taverns as they would of old friends. "Gurney's o' Flemmerton" was a popular       rendezvous for devotees of sport, princi- pally horse racing, foot running, and box- ing. Cock-fighting, a now almost dead     sport, was frequently held there, and skittles, an old game popular at most of the early public-houses, was another    

attraction.  

Of the many coaching hostels, the Ivan-   hoe Hotel, the first stopping-place for the     Wood's Point coaches, was one of the best       patronised, attracting as it did the elite of     Port Phillip colony. Gay indeed were   the carnival-like celebrations that were         held there. The cries of "Tally Ho," voiced by the best people of the period, were commonplace sounds in the woods   surrounding. The tavern was also a favourite house for artists and sketching         parties. The place was demolished only     about two years ago. Though there may

be one or two picturesque hotels left, in  

name if nothing else, most have long since   disappeared, leaving no trace. The site of one old coaching inn, however, is marked by a memorial stone built into   the foundation of a modern warehouse     in Flinders lane. The inscription tells us           that the Prime Minister of England, who   was then Robert Cecil, resided there  

while on a visit in 1852. Many old pictures-   que titles remain associated with hotels   in Greater Melbourne, such as the Bull   and Mouth, Yorkshire Stingo, Marquis o'   Lorne, Tankerville Arms, London Tavern, and others closely related. They will fade out eventually, it seems, and plain names, such as of "Brown's," will take their   place. There are cases, however, in which progress marches backward.

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