The old Separation Inn

While I was already in the district - so to speak - I thought I would stop by another couple of inns along the way. Both located close to the Moorabool River on the route to the goldfields, and both interwoven with the Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road; subject of my last blog post. First: the Separation Inn.
As I alluded to previously, the hospitality industry of the 19th century, was a volatile scene. Hotel owners often came and went within a few years, licensees even more frequently. Depending on the behaviour of the clientele, the number of hotels in the district, the state of the buildings, the financial situation or reputation of the licensee and a host of other reasons, publicans' licenses could be granted or denied on an annual basis. This was also the case for the less expensive beer, and colonial wine licenses which restricted what the licensee could serve (usually a cheaper product) and often attracted a less than salubrious class of patron.

An example of a publican's license from the 19th century. Image taken from
Victorian Collections

The end result it seems, was that insolvencies were relatively common and that licensees switched venues on a regular basis, often holding more than one license at a time. This was certainly the case for the Separation and the Clyde Inns on the road to Buninyong and Ballarat.
The older of the two, the Separation Inn was amongst the few public houses to be found between Geelong and Buninyong prior to the beginning of the gold rush in 1851. As I have found with other hotels, there seems to be some uncertainty as to when the hotel first opened. The publication Hotels, Pubs & Inns of the Geelong Country Districts (Jennings, 2009) indicates that the hotel was first mentioned in the Port Phillip Herald on 27th March, 1843 and was owned by George Russell of the Clyde Company. At this time, I am uncertain exactly where Russell's hotel was located and my (admittedly somewhat cursory) examination of the Clyde Company papers for 1843 showed no correspondence regarding the hotel.
Another reference to the hotel was made by Henry Mundy who passed that way with his family in October, 1844. Writing many years later in the early 20th century, he recalled that they "reached a swamp, near where the old Separation Inn used to be on the road to Ballarat" however, whether this refers to the hotel owned by George Russell, or to a later structure is debatable as Mundy passed that way many times over the following years and may have been referring to a newer building.
Regardless, it seems any original hotel owned by Russell, was not around for long. On 28th October, 1850, the Geelong Advertiser published the following notice:

What is clear, is that towards the end of 1850, Michael O'Meara (previously the landlord of the Shamrock Inn, Geelong) erected the building which by 1851 was known as the Separation Inn. It was located on Clyde Company land near the intersection of what was then the road to The Leigh (Shelford) and the Buninyong Track. Today, the intersection of Russell's Rd with the Midland Hwy lies about 350m north west of where the hotel stood.
Surprisingly perhaps, having gone to the effort of building his own hotel and with the gold rush by now in full swing, O'Meara remained as landlord only until about June, 1852. Some time between that date and October the same year, Thomas Dunlop became the new license holder for the Separation Inn, although  O'Meara retained ownership until at least July, 1854 when he advertised the property for sale. During the intervening time, the license passed briefly from Dunlop to William Rae who in turn transferred it to George Williamson in December, 1853.
Whilst O'Meara may have owned the hotel, he did not own the land surrounding it which, by 1854, formed part of the Clyde Company's purchased holdings. Section 23 of the Parish of Gherineghap on which the hotel was situated was originally sold to John Hosking and John Terry Hughes - land speculators from Sydney - in 1837. The pair borrowed heavily to finance their purchases across the country however, and in 1843 with recession beginning to bite, the company of Hughes and Hosking as well as the men themselves were forced into insolvency bringing down the Bank of Australia with them. Their fall from grace was one of the biggest financial scandals the colony of New South Wales had seen.
The fallout from their financial collapse however, proved a boon for the Clyde Company who in 1847 were able to purchase sections 12, 23 and 27 in the parish of Gherineghap which of course, included the land on which the Separation Inn stood. By May, 1854 however, George Russell had made the decision to subdivide and sell some 2,000 acres of land along the Moorabool River, including much of sections 23, 26 and 27. As part of the survey and subdivision carried out by surveyor Matthew Biddle, and in addition to an array of blocks ranging in size from 10 to 60 acres, a further 63 allotments of one acre in size were also laid out in a grid format fronting the Ballarat Rd. This new township was to be known as Gheringhap and the Separation Inn was located on allotment number 1.

Part of the survey map produced for the Clyde Company's subdivision of
sections 23, 25 and 27 of the Parish of Gherineghap. Showing the intended
township of Gheringhap. Image taken from the Clyde Company Papers
1854-1858

History shows that the township of Gheringhap, did not develop where or when George Russell's surveyor planned. Instead, settlement occurred later at the railway crossing about a mile closer to Geelong and a mere half a mile from the Eureka Hotel, situated at the turn off to Fyansford.
The post office opened at Gheringhap in 1869, however the railway station was not opened until December, 1877, nearly 16 years after the opening of the Geelong-Ballarat Railway. It was the settlement around the railway crossing which eventually became the little town of Gheringhap.

The Gheringhap post office, 1967. Image taken from the National Archives
of Australia, Image number B5919, 745

The Clyde Company Papers show that of the 63 one acre blocks surveyed by Biddle and laid out in a township grid, only 20 were sold, to four separate purchasers. The block on which the Separation Inn stood, was not amongst the land sold. Perhaps sensing that development of the surveyed township might not prove successful, O'Meara put the hotel on the market in July of that year. I could find no record of a purchaser, however by June, 1854 Henry Edward Hunter was behind the bar at the Separation Inn with George Russell as his landlord (Clyde Company Papers). Williamson meanwhile had moved up the road a short distance to open his own public house: the Clyde Hotel (more of which in my next post). Hunter and his business partner Lillie, signed a three year lease for the inn to commence from 1st July, 1855 at a rate of £125 per annum, however by January, 1856 he had already moved on, leaving behind their effects which were under distraint to be sold by the Bailiff to recoup costs on behalf of Russell.
The Williamson family however, were not quite finished with the Separation Inn and the departure of Hunter and Lillie, cleared the way on 1st March, 1856, for John R Williamson - brother of George - to take over the license from Hunter.
By February, 1857 however, Russell was looking for a purchaser for the inn.  His agent John Carr informed him by letter on 26th February, that whilst he had not been able to procure a purchaser, he had found a tenant willing to take on a five year lease at a rate of £150 per annum - Patrick Hawkins. Upon looking at the property however, Hawkins realised that a substantial amount of work needed to be done and reduced his offer of £150 rent to £100. This was accepted at the lower rate - for the first year (Clyde Company Papers).
Despite having a new tenant for the hotel, Russell continued to look for purchasers for the hotel and the land surrounding. After the underwhelming response to his initial attempts to subdivide and sell the land around the Separation Inn, he once again made an attempt to sell, early in 1858 (Ballarat Star, 23rd January, 1858). This time, the blocks for sale were larger, with no suggestion of a township subdivision, and a four acre block, including the inn itself was on offer to the public. This time, the Clyde Company Papers show that the Separation Inn and the 4 acres on which it stood were sold in June, 1858 to Frederick Locke.
Despite this, the April, 1859 sitting of the licensing court, shows Patrick Hawkins renewing his license and by the following year, the hotel was once again beginning to show its age. At the 1860 licensing day, Hawkins' renewal was postponed pending repairs, but was granted in May. The following month, Hawkins was implicated in a case of embezzlement when he is said to have purchased alcohol destined for someone else, however no blame appears to have been attributed to him directly when the case came to trial (Geelong Advertiser, 9th June, 1860). He was however, in trouble with the law himself later that year when he was convicted of breaching the publicans' act by repeatedly serving alcohol to an intoxicated patron over the course of several days, leaving him in what was colloquially known as the "dead room" to recover his wits before continuing his bender, allowing Hawkins to pocket the profit. Hawkins was fined 40s and ordered to pay costs (Geelong Advertiser, 12th December, 1860). Nor did Hawkins' business practises improve. By December, 1861 he was insolvent and no longer the licensee at the Separation Inn.
The new licensee was Frederick Locke who, after a delay in his application lodged in April, pending more repairs on the property, had himself taken up the license of what was by that time described as the "Old Separation Inn". Despite various financial and legal difficulties - as described in my previous post - Locke retained the license for the inn until July, 1870, however by December, 1865 and with financial pressure mounting, he downgraded his "spirit license" for the inn to a cheaper "beer license" (Geelong Advertiser, 10th May, 1865), a fact which was noted the following year when a correspondent to the Advertiser wrote on 22nd March that "the old Separation Inn, where so much money was made in the golden days, is in a sad state of repair, and is merely a beer shop."
By the end of 1869, Locke had moved to his new premises - the Eureka Hotel - at Leigh Road (Bannockburn) having earlier installed a tenant - John Johnstone - at the Separation Inn. In July, 1869 however, Johnstone in turn transferred his beer and colonial wine licenses to David Ross, an absentee tenant whose agent Frederick Stanley, ran the business for several months before applying for a beer license in his own name. It was to take effect as of the 1st January, 1870. Locke's financial failings however, meant that by July, 1870 the hotel was on the market and from this time on I found no further license applications.

Site of the Separation Inn, October, 2016

The last direct mention of the Separation Inn appeared in March, 1875 when it was announced that "the well known and old-established hotel, known as the Separation Inn, together with about 4 acres land" was for sale (Geelong Advertiser, 15th March, 1875). What became of the hotel buildings I have not discovered and despite its popularity during the early days of the gold rush, at no point in its 24 year history did I find a description of the inn or its outbuildings. Nor do I know of an image of the hotel.
Like most public houses however, the Separation Inn had a chequered career. Originally established to serve those travelling between Geelong and the grazing properties of the Western District, it later did a roaring trade in the early days of the gold rush as one of the few public houses on the road from Geelong to Ballarat. As the years passed however, increasing competition from the many new hotels which sprang up along the road and the arrival in 1862 of the Geelong-Ballarat Railway, saw business begin to decline, the hotel began to show its age and the clientele likewise may also have changed.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the inn and its proprietors began to appear more regularly in the pages of the local papers. From suicides in the vicinity to thefts, assaults, accidental deaths, murders and even one charge of bestiality, the road to the diggings could be a dangerous one.
One such example was the accidental death in April, 1854 of John Sansom, a 40 year old digger returning from the goldfields who was brought to the inn critically injured after accidentally shooting himself as he and his travelling companions passed Lethbridge, then known as the Muddy Water Holes (Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer, 5th April, 1854). Sansom died and an inquest was held at the inn.
A second inquest was held, in June, 1868 on the body of David Corbett, a drayman on his way to Ballarat. Having stopped for a pint at Batesford and then another at the Eureka, he fell asleep on the shafts of his wagon after crossing the railway line at Gheringhap, toppled off and fell beneath his dray which was loaded with three tons of goods. The wheel of the dray passed over his lower chest causing severe injuries. By the time the other teamster travelling with him realised his friend was missing and returned to find him, Corbett was dead. As the law directed, his body was taken to the nearest public house - the Separation Inn - where an inquest was held two days later (The Argus, 11th June, 1868). Following the inquest, Corbett's remains were taken to Geelong where he was buried at the Western Cemetery.
An interesting if somewhat macabre consequence of holding a publican's license in the 19th century was the requirement that any person holding such a license must make their premises available for the purpose of holding a coronial inquest if required to do so as outlined in an "Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to the Licensing of Public Houses and the Sale of Fermented and Spirituous Liquors. [2nd June, 1864]". The act stated that:

Every holder of a publican's license shall at the request of any officer or constable of police receive into the house mentioned in such license or upon the premises occupied therewith any dead body that may be brought to such house for the purpose of an inquest being held thereon and for every dead body so received he shall be paid the sum of one pound out of any money which may be appropriated for such purpose and if he shall refuse to receive such dead body for the purpose aforesaid he shall on conviction thereof before any justice forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding five pounds.

Today, this requirement is no doubt obsolete and any sign of the Separation Inn is also long gone. The land on which the inn stood is now occupied by a farmhouse which fronts onto the Midland Highway and which is the home of a local fencing company. The old road to the Leigh has been realigned to meet the highway almost 2km to the north west and travellers no longer stop for a drink or a meal at the Separation Inn.

Looking along the line of the the old Leigh Road towards Bannockburn, October, 2016

The lost Eureka Hotel

Whilst researching the Eureka Hotel on the Ballarat Road for my last blog post, I came across some confusion, and after a little digging to make sure of my research, I discovered there were not (as one local source suggested) two, but rather three Eureka Hotels in the district: the Eureka Hotel which still stands in Little Malop St, Geelong, the Eureka Hotel/Inn at Gheringhap on the Ballarat Rd and a third Eureka Hotel which is still a trading hotel today, but under a different name.
As I attempted to establish a timeline of who owned the Ballarat Rd hotel and when, I came across several references to the Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road. In the pre-gold rush era, the road leading out of Geelong via Batesford was often referred to as "the road to the Leigh" or the "Leigh Road" which led to Shelford - or as it was then known - the Leigh.
So, it was possible that the address could have referred to the Eureka Hotel I was researching, however the references I found dated to the late 1860s, early 1870s by which time the Eureka Hotel at Gheringhap was (I surmised) no longer trading. It was also well after the beginning of the gold rush by which time the road between Geelong and the goldfields of Ballarat had become the major thoroughfare and was generally known as the Ballarat Rd. The road to The Leigh was now a turn off from the main road and located a little less than 2km from today's Shelford-Bannockburn Rd intersection with the Midland Hwy.

Intersection of Russell's Rd and the Midland Hwy, looking north west towards
Bannockburn along the original alignment of the Upper Leigh Rd

By the 1850s the road to The Leigh was known as the Upper Leigh or Upper Western Rd to distinguish it from today's Hamilton Hwy (aka Lower Leigh, Lower Western or Great Western Rd). It seems unlikely therefore that the Eureka Hotel at Gheringhap would have the address "Leigh Road" by that time.
The use of capital letters in the 19th century newspapers was also important. When giving street names, the word "road" was not capitalised. The Geelong Advertiser however, gave the address as either the "Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road" or the "Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road Station." And therein lay the difference. The town of Bannockburn has had several names, beginning with Bruce's Creek and even Wabdallah after the parish in which it was located. Initially it was situated west of Bruce's Creek (a tributary of the Barwon River) and south of the road to Shelford. With the arrival of the Geelong to Ballarat Railway in 1862, however the focus of the town shifted to its current alignment close to the railway station. From this time onward, the relocated town became known as Leigh Road after the name given to the station situated at the point where the train line crossed the Upper Leigh Rd.
My guess therefore was that the later references to the Eureka were to a hotel located in Bannockburn, not to the hotel at Gheringhap which had ceased trading. Could I find such a hotel? Yes, I could. In addition to the newspaper advertisements I had already discovered, I found the following in the Geelong Advertiser of 8th January, 1869:

Frederick Locke's application for a liquor license at Leigh Road, 1869

Frederick Locke ran the Eureka Hotel at Leigh Road aka Bannockburn which according to the Victorian Government Gazette (5th August, 1870, 1133, p1160) was situated on Allotment 10, Section 6 of the parish of Wabdallah . This is the same block on which the Railway Hotel at Bannockburn sits today.
So who was Frederick Locke and what became of his Eureka Hotel?
The first mention I found of him in the district was at the Separation Inn, located near the intersection of the Upper Leigh Rd with the Ballarat Rd. In 1860 Locke was amongst a group of 35 local land owners and occupiers who met at the hotel with the intention of forming a road district - the precursor to the Bannockburn Shire.
Locke remained at the Separation Inn for a number of years. In April, 1861 he applied for a publican's license, however it was postponed pending repairs to the property. Late the following year, Frederick charged a local woman with breaking into the hotel and burglary. The charges were sustained despite the defense's argument that the charge was payback for litigation instituted by the woman's husband against Locke.
Disturbingly, Locke was himself charged with indecent assault by Harriet Hale (aka Hall) in April, 1867. Harriet was in fact Locke's sister-in-law, sister to his wife Fanny. She was employed by Locke as a house servant and was staying at a house owned by Locke not far from the hotel. On the night in question, his wife was staying at the hotel whilst Locke along with Harriet, and both their children were at a house owned by Locke some distance away. She alleged that he called her and insisted she sleep with him and laid hands upon her. She resisted. The defence claimed she went to his bed without being asked. She threatened to take him to court. He claimed she would be too ashamed and that he would have his revenge. Eventually, Locke was committed to stand trial, however when the case came to trial in October, she retracted the charges, claiming that Locke insulted her by word only and that she was upset because he refused to pay her wages - a claim she had previously brought to court. Harriet was then ordered to face a charge of perjury, however this was later dismissed.
In an odd twist, at the same time as her husband was charged with indecent assault, Fanny Locke charged Daniel Gilchrist (clerk of the court in which the case was to be heard) with indecent assault upon herself. Despite defence allegations that the charges were brought in retaliation for the writ served by Gilchrist in relation to the alleged assault on his sister-in-law, Gilchrist was reprimanded and fined.
The following year, Locke was once again in court, this time defending charges that he, Harriet and various others covered up the birth (and death) of Harriet's child. Medical evidence provided at the trial suggested that the birth was a miscarriage or abortion and fines were issued for failing to properly register the birth and death.
In addition to the turmoil in his personal life, Locke's business dealings began to suffer. In July, 1867 both the hotel and the farmhouse were put up for auction by the mortgagee. Seemingly undeterred however, within about 18 months, Locke was again in business, this time indicating that he was "now residing at Wabdallah" and that he intended to apply for a wine and beer license his property known as the Eureka Inn.
 However, business did not go well for Locke at the Eureka either, and by September, 1869 the hotel was listed for sale as the "Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road Station". A sale it seems was not forthcoming and a publican's license was again issued to Locke in December, 1869. Things went from bad to worse for him in 1870 when, on 6th January the Geelong Advertiser published the following notice:

Death notice, Geelong Advertiser, 6th January, 1870

The problem - although perhaps not for Locke - was that he was not in fact deceased, despite what someone wanted the world to think. No hint is given as to who the perpetrator may have been and the next day the paper published a hasty retraction:

A very malicious hoax was perpetrated yesterday. A notice was brought to this office in the usual form announcing the death of Mr Frederick Lock, of the Eureka Hotel, Leigh Road, and also that the funeral would take place this morning. Fortunately for himself, Mr Lock, so far from being deceased, was able to read the fictitious notice, and to come into Geelong to give notice of its being a fabrication. The punishment to be inflicted on the perpetrator of so heartless a hoax should be severe.

But it was too late. The Ballarat Courier copied the death notice a day after the Advertiser, followed by the retraction, then, a number of other papers across the state also published the death notice over the course of the following month. To this day, the effects of the hoax continue to be felt. Frederick Lock is listed in the Bannockburn burial register with date and place of death as per the Advertiser article, although it is noted that his death does not appear in the Victorian Pioneer Index.
This as it happens, is not quite true. Frederick's death does appear in the index, although not until 1894 and listed as Edward Frederick Locke. According to his will, he died on 14th February, 1894 and cemetery records show he was buried at the Eastern Cemetery the following day. I could not locate a headstone.
But what happened in between? After surviving his own reported death, Frederick was once again in financial difficulty when in October, 1870 and with the Eureka still unsold, he was declared insolvent and a writ of Fieri Facias was issued against him, meaning the sheriff took possession of the hotel and some nearby land also owned by Locke. Not long after, he appears to have left the district, eventually finding his way to Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula. At the time of his death in the Geelong Hospital, his occupation was stated as miner.

As for Locke's hotels, the Separation Inn will be the topic of my next blog post, however it seems that despite the earlier mortgagee's auction, Locke retained the property until July, 1870 when it along with the Eureka and a block of land, were offered for sale when Locke was declared insolvent. On this occasion, a buyer for his Eureka Hotel was forthcoming and John Henry Jones became the new owner, although it does seem to have created a little confusion in the district (which perhaps persisted to recent times) as this extract from the Geelong Advertiser of 6th June, 1871 states:

"An impression prevails at Leigh Road that a third public-house has been erected at Leigh-road. If we are rightly informed this is not correct. The supposed new house is stated to be the old Eureka Hotel purchased by Mr J.H. Jones, in Mr Lock’s estate, and re-christened the Railway Hotel. The mistake has probably arisen out of the fact that Mr Jones has made additions to the premises.

The Railway Hotel, Bannockburn October, 2016

Further renovations and additions were undertaken in 1877 and he continued to run the hotel for another 13 years. However, hospitality during the nineteenth century was a volatile industry in which to work, with publicans often forced into bankruptcy or to sell up after only a couple of years in business and Jones' was no exception. In addition to the Railway, Jones also owned the Clyde Hotel (located on the Ballarat Rd at the Clyde Rd intersection). In July, 1883 it was burnt to the ground, however newspaper reports at the time indicated that it had not operated as a public house for some time and was instead used as a farmhouse.

Things did not improve for Jones when the following year he was declared insolvent and and charged with obtaining money by deception, however the court saw the matter as a misunderstanding by his bank rather than a deliberate attempt at fraud. Regardless of this, as an undischarged bankrupt, the liquor licensing bench refused to renew Jones' publican's license. An attempt to have the license renewed in the name of his daughter was declined as she was an unmarried woman, living with her father, whilst a third attempt was also declined on the grounds that the applicant was merely a dummy for the Jones family who were still living at the hotel. Mrs Jones it was noted was too ill to move.

By December, 1885 Mrs Jones had died as a result of her illness and their daughter Lillias once again applied for a publican's license on the understanding that it would be transferred to her father once his insolvency had been settled. This time she was successful and the license was granted. It was not however, until April, 1887 that Jones received his certificate of discharge. By December, 1888 he was once again the licensee of his own hotel. Finally, in November, 1889 Jones sold out to William Flahive, with a clearing sale being conducted on the premises in January, 1890. Flahive was also the owner of the Exchange Hotel in Geelong.
John Jones died at Clifton Springs the following year on 11th May, 1891 and was buried with his wife Emma at the Bannockburn Cemetery.

Grave of John Jones and his wife Emma at the Bannockburn
Cemetery. Image taken from BillionGraves

William Flahive continued to run the hotel until his own death in November, 1901 at which time, the license was taken over by his widow Mary who after a few years, leased the property out. William was a prominent member of the local racing club and well respected in the local community with the hotel often used to host functions for the Leigh Road Racing Club. When in 1908 the Railway Hotel came before the Licenses Reduction Board, it received favourable reports from a host of locals including the police constable who considered it the best hotel in the district and presumably was spared from closure.

Grave of William and Mary Agnes Flahive and several of their children,
Eastern Cemetery, Geelong, Old Catholic Section 2, grave 109, October, 2016

Mary Flahive died in 1910, after which the hotel underwent successive changes of licensees and presumably owners, with none staying more than ten years. In 1936 with Thomas Norton as the new licensee, a major overhaul of the hotel was approved by the Licensing Court (The Age, 29th September, 1936):

Plans for alterations to the Railway Hotel, Bannockburn, near Geelong, were submitted. These provide for material alterations internally of the present building, which was erected 60 or 70 years ago. Old parts will be renewed, a new roof will be put on, a septic tank, and hot water system will be installed, and generally the building is to be made as good as new. The approximate cost of the work will be £2250, and the alterations will be finished about the middle of January.

As of August, 2012, The Bannockburn Railway Hotel Pty Ltd is a private company servicing a growing population approaching 4,000 people. It is many years since I've been for a meal, but I suspect it it high time I headed back!