By MICK ROBERTS ©
THERE’S no doubt, Berrima’s Surveyor General Inn, on the NSW Southern Highlands, is one of Australia’s oldest trading pubs.
Claims though that the pub is Australia’s oldest continuously licensed pub has come under a shadow with evidence uncovered by ‘Time Gents’ sure to re-ignite the lingering debate on the coveted honour.
After more than 60 years of trade, the Surveyor General Inn closed for business in 1895 after its low ceiling heights failed to meet the standards of the Licensing Act, and, coupled with a family dispute, its license lapsed before it was regained later in the year.
Stripping the Surveyor General of its title of Australia’s “oldest continuously licensed pub” for not having a permit to trade for just under four months may seem a little harsh. However, the fact remains, that the inn was without a permit to trade from June 30 to October 17 1895, and therefore has not had a continuous license from establishment in 1835.
The Surveyor General’s history dates back to when James Harper built the pub of sandstock bricks and locally quarried sandstone, reportedly with the assistance of convict labour, in 1834.
In the course of surveying a new road south from Liverpool, in 1830, the NSW Surveyor General Major Thomas Mitchell selected the new town of Berrima to replace the government village of Bong Bong. The official approval for the town was given by the governor Sir Ralph Darling in 1831.
Berrima’s first pub had the somewhat unimaginative sign of the ‘Berrima Inn’, licensed on July 7, 1834, and was kept by Bryan McMahon.
The Surveyor General Inn, named in honour of Major Mitchell, was Berrima’s second pub, licensed by James Harper in 1835.
James Harper, chief police constable at Sutton Forest, son of convicts and married to convict Mary Anne Robinson, bought two lots in the new village of Berrima in 1832 on which to establish his inn.
The pub was built on a rock shelf and the stone cellars continue to be used to this day. In its early years the cellar of the inn was reportedly used to keep convicts chained.
James Harper turned on the taps of his new pub when he received a license on June 29, 1835 and he remained host until 1839 during which time he had built a successful inn and a grand and elegant Georgian home on the northern side of the village.
Harper became an influential and wealthy citizen and was nominated to the Berrima District Council. He retired from the pub to lead the life a country gentleman on his estate in 1839 and leased the thriving business to wealthy mail contractor and recently widowed business woman Ann Richards. Richards also owned a brewery at Goulburn, and ran a general store at Berrima before taking the license of the Surveyor General in 1839.
Richards had a short stay as host at the Surveyor General, and was followed by Ralph Hush in 1840, and in 1841, William Taylor.
Taylor had made sufficient money to establish himself in his own pub and he built a large brick hotel, about 200 yards from the Surveyor-General, which he opened in 1844 under the sign of the Crown Inn and operated with his wife Bridget.
Berrima boasted five pubs, reported the Sydney Morning Herald on March 12 1844:
The traveller will find an obliging host and hostess, and ample refreshments, the latter at a pretty moderate charge, considering all the circumstances. The town of Berrima itself is what would in England be classed as a very small village or hamlet, and contains somewhere about half a hundred houses, scattered about on either side of the road. It has, however, five inns, of which Doyle’s, commonly called the “Mail Coach Inn, is decidedly the best although the Surveyor General Inn kept by Mr. William Taylor, and situated in the immediate vicinity of the Court House appears to possess very good accommodation and is frequented during assize time by the gentlemen of the long robe.
James Harper parted with his money as rapidly as he had gained it, his fine home passed out of his control, and he returned to the Surveyor General as host in 1844, hoping to retrieve his lost fortune. However, in February of the following year he died at the young age of 39, leaving a widow and son.
His widow, Mary Ann hosted the pub for a number of years, as did her son-in-law, John Atkinson, before she remarried James McDermott in 1847 who also held the Surveyor General’s license for a time.
William Walker, whose son, Alexander B. Walker, captured the notorious bushranger, Thunderbolt in 1870, was the next licensee of the inn, remaining there from 1856 to 1869.
Berrima township’s pubs 1856
- Surveyor General, Argyle Street, William Walker.
- Coach and Horse, Argyle Street, Lewis Levy
- Gold Diggers Arms, Nathan Street, William Moore
- Queen Victoria Inn, Market Place, Joseph Levy
- Crown Inn, Argyle Street, Bridget Taylor
The second generation of the Harper family took control of the pub in 1869.
No large fortune awaited 26-year-old John Harper when he became the second generation of the family to host the Surveyor General Inn. The town began to decline in 1867 when the railroad, surveyed to come through the Berrima, was diverted instead through the fields of Bowral and Moss Vale.
The impact on Berrima was severe, with the number of pubs in the town dropping from six in 1866, to four in 1869.
Berrima township’s pubs 1866
- Crown Inn, Francis Breen
- Commercial Hotel, Thomas Hatfield
- Victoria Inn, Lewis Levey [Levy]
- Black Bull, Ellen McPherson
- Gold Diggers Arms, Thomas Ryan
- Surveyor General Inn, William Walker Snr.
Berrima township’s pubs 1869
- Commercial Hotel, Francis Breen
- Surveyor General Inn, John Harper
- Black Bull, Ellen McPherson
- Crown Inn, Sarah Taylor
The only surviving son of James Harper, 26-year-old John Harper and his wife Jane and four children became hosts of the Surveyor General Inn from 1869.
During a fierce thunderstorm which passed over Berrima on Christmas Day 1876, the Surveyor General Inn was struck by lightning, while the Harper family were having afternoon tea. The lightening bolt entered the room where the family was assembled by coming down the chimney, passing along a wall, breaking a kerosene lamp, and passed out at a door, tearing a considerable quantity of plaster off the walls on its way. Amazingly no one was injured.
The lightning bolt incident must have ‘used-up’ John Harper’s remaining lives, and within eight months he was dead. Like his father, the publican unexpectedly died young, at the age of 34, on August 2 1877.
After his death, his widow Jane Harper continued as host, holding the license for many years. She remarried Edward Daly in 1881, and, as Jane Daly, continued as host at the Surveyor General until a law was passed preventing married women from holding a publican’s licence.
Berrima township’s pubs 1882
- Surveyor General Inn, Jane Daly (nee Harper)
- Commercial Hotel, Mary Breen
- Crown Inn, Christopher Boland
The Crown Inn was not relicensed in 1883 and closed for business, leaving just Jane Daly’s Surveyor General Inn and Mary Breen’s Commercial Hotel trading in Berrima township.
When the NSW Licensing Act was changed to prevent married women from holding a publican’s license in the early 1890s, Jane Daly was forced to retire as host of the Surveyor General Inn. She nominated her son from her first marriage, 27-year-old James Robert Harper, to take over as licensee. It was at this time that family tensions and an ageing building would lead to the license of the Surveyor General Inn lapsing. The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press reported on June 15 1895:
Edward B. Daly applied for a renewal of license of the Surveyor General Hotel Berrima. Mr Gale appeared for the applicant, and Mr H M Oxley appeared for the applicant’s wife Mrs Jane Daley, who opposed the applicant, and applied that the transfer be made to her son James R. Harper. The case appeared somewhat complicated, resulting from family differences. Counsel addressed the Bench at considerable length, and after a short consultation, the Bench adjourned the case for a fortnight.
In an effort to take the license of the Surveyor General Inn, Edward Daly challenged his wife Jane in the Supreme Court in 1895. After the failed bid, James ‘Jack’ Harper, the third generation of the family, was given the green light to apply for the license of the Surveyor General Inn. However, the family hit another snag. The ceiling heights in some of the pub’s upstairs bedrooms were too low and did not meet the requirements of the licensing act. As a consequence the license of the Surveyor General lapsed.
The drinkers of Berrima had lost the Commercial Hotel in 1894 when it closed for business, leaving just the Surveyor General as the town’s only watering hole. After more than 60 years Berrima went completely ‘dry’ when its last remaining pub, the Surveyor General Inn was forced to close on June 30 1895.
James Harper went about making several improvements to the inn required by the Licensing Board including raising the roof to provide more head space to the upstairs rooms. The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press reported on Saturday October 19 1895:
James Robert Harper applied for a new license for the Surveyor General Hotel, Berrima. Mr. Oxley appeared for the applicant, and stated that certain improvements had been effected to the house, which brought the height of the rooms up to the standard required by the Act. This was rendered necessary by the lapsing of the old license on the 30th of June last. Sen Sergt Sykes had inspected the house and had no objection either to the premises or the applicant. The requisite notices had been given. The application was granted.
The Surveyor General was left unlicensed for three and a half months before a new permit was granted to James Robert Harper on October 17 1895. The Berrima Free Press reported on October 23 1895:
BERRIMA, which has been doing without an hotel for some time past, can once more boast of a place where one can get something stronger than ‘mountain dew’. The license of the Surveyor General Hotel was granted to Mr. J. Harper last week, and accommodation far man and beast can again be had in the ancient little township.
Jane Daly died in 1917 at the age of 77 and was buried in the Church of England cemetery, Berrima. Her son James was the last of the Harpers to own and host the inn. At the age of 35, he married Elizabeth Izard, a descendent of First Fleeter, James Ruse, in 1902, but they had no family. When Harper retired from the Surveyor General in 1924, there being no children to carry on the business, the license was taken by John Warn Tuck.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on August 29 1924:
The Surveyor General Hotel at Berrima, which for 90 yours has been held by one family, is changing hands. Erected in 1834, when Berrima was the only township in the district which now bears its name, the hotel has passed through three generations to its present owner, Mr. J. R. Harper, who has now disposed of his interests.
James Robert Harper retired to Sydney where he died in 1936 at the age of 69.
After Harper’s departure from Berrima, the hotel was bought by Southern Portland Cement Company (which became Blue Circle Southern Cement, now Boral). During the 1930s the inn was sold again to J. H. Byrne from Narellan, and again in 1938 to Reg Liddell for £4,700, including furniture.
In 1942 the Licensing Court refused to renew the inn’s licence because the building was considered too old and in 1960 an order to demolish the premises was made. Thankfully attempts to have the old inn closed failed. The Canberra Times reported on Thursday June 28 1962:
MOSS VALE, Wednesday – The Surveyor General Hotel at Berrima, one of Australia’s rarest architectural links with convict, and bushranging days, was sold today for £13,250. The buyer is Mr. Graham Percival, formerly of the Good Intent Hotel at Campbelltown. Mr Percival said he intended to carry on the Surveyor-General as a hotel adding two new wings to the two-storey building, erected by convicts in 1834. Whitewashed stone would be used in the new wings to match the old architecture and at the same time meet licensing requirements for modernised and increased accommodation. Mr Percival said he planned to make part of the hotel a museum with convict and bushranger relics on display. The Surveyor General is the oldest establishment in Australia carried on continuously as a licensed hotel.
Graham Percival commissioned architect Orwell Phillips to draw up plans for the interior and exterior alterations to the inn.
Public pressure saw the liquor licensing laws changed to allow for hotels to be listed as heritage buildings. The Surveyor General Inn was the first of its kind in NSW to be exempted from certain provisions of the Liquor Act which required buildings to meet certain standards when it was declared a “historic Inn” by the NSW Government in 1964.
The building was bought by Mrs Etta Charles D’Arrietta of Mosman in 1968 who restored the exterior façade including the removal of the second storey balcony, added in the late 19th century, and the reinstatement of the single storey verandah. The Canberra Times reported on July 8 1968 that the NSW Government would provide $60,000 towards the restoration.
Despite changes over time, the Surveyor General Inn still holds its colonial charm and is a popular pub, particularly in the colder months in front of its public bar open fire, or in summer, under the verandah or the shady courtyard.
Surveyor General Inn, Berrima: Licensees 1835 – 1979
1835 – 1839: James Harper
1839 – 1840: Ann Richards
1840 – 1841: Ralph Hush
1841 – 1844: William Taylor
1844 – 1845: James Harper
1845 – 1846: Mary Harper
1846 – 1847: Hyam Phillips
1847 – 1850: James McDermott
1850 – 1853: Mary McDermott
1853 – 1854: Daniel Handcock
1854 – 1856 – John Atkinson
1856 – 1869: William Walker
1869 – 1877: John Harper
1877 – 1881: Jane Harper
1881 – 1895: Jane Daly (nee Harper)
License lapsed June 30, 1895
New license granted October 17 1895
1895 – 1924: James Robert Harper
1924 – 1926: John Warn Tuck
1926 – William Edward Sweeney
1926 – 1929: William John Belford
1929 – 1930: Ethel Gertrude Devitt
1930 – 1931: George Jenkins
1931 – 1935: Charles Lockett
1935 – George Alfred Wilkins
1935 – Frederick William Williams
1935 – 1936: Carl Rudolph Nitschke
1936 – Olive Adeline Kennedy
1936 – 1937: William Frederick Lewis
1937 – Irene Elsie Mossman
1937 – 1939: Helen Mooney
1939 – Walter M Russell
1939 – Reginald A. Liddell (owner)
1939 – 1940: Lawrence P. Luckie
1940 – 1941: Reginald A. Liddell (owner)
1941 – 1942: Ivor E. Edworthy
1942 – 1945: Charles Auswild
1945 – 1955: David A. H. Tate
1955 – 1962: Noel Hay Tate
1962 – 1964: Graham Percival (owner)
1964 – 1965: C.J.B. Investments (owner)
1965 – 1966: Robert Emmett McDonough
1966 – 1967: Russell Thomas Rong
1967 – Jedda Hotels Pty Ltd (Owner)
1967 – 1974: Etta Charlotte D’Arrietta
1974 – 1979: John Deacon Clough
1979 – Ernest Donald Johnson
© Copyright Mick Roberts 2023
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Categories: NSW hotels
Wonderful story Mick and so very relevant to what I am currently researching.
I am interested in who may have been occupants of a reasonably sized dwelling in Argyle Street in the 1841 Census. It has been speculated that the dwelling on Argyle Street in Return No. 2, Item No. X946 p. 65, Reel No. 2222 was the Surveyor General Inn. In the Census Return the householder’s name is William Wood, one of 12 occupants. A family historian (not me!) is speculating that the some of the other occupants were members of his family and has imaginatively slotted in seven of the eleven. To take the speculation further, the family historian has suggested that Ann Richards was the licensee and William Wood was filling in during her absence. I see from your records that this would not have been the case – Hush or Taylor would have been the licensee. As it happens, a William Wood was a farmer on one of the 80 allotments granted to discharged soldiers at Bong Bong in 1829. There is another householder named William Wood in the 1841 Census described at a place named Veterans Flats, Bong Bong (Return No. 67 Item No. X946 p.61, Reel No. 2222) – which would seem more feasible for the soldier William Wood that I am researching, except in this return there are only two single men listed, one free and one ticket of leave. ‘My’ William Wood, was a veteran of Waterloo, and he did have a family (that has been placed in the Surveyor General Inn), so where are the family in the Veterans Flats return? I just can’t see a farmer deserting his farm to become a stand-in publican in town. However, if the dwelling in the census is NOT the Surveyor General, I may be looking at an off-farm residence in Berrima, and the same man recorded twice in the census. As a one-time census collector in Western Australia I certainly know that can happen. The 1841 Census (handwritten of course) is available online as a high resolution image. I see the Time Gents also cover Western Australia – I recently met Allen Graham (Inns and Outs of Fremantle). You all do such wonderful work. I do hope you are able to identify the Surveyor General Inn somewhere else in that census!