_{By MICK ROBERTS ©}

FOR just over 40 years, bushrangers and desperadoes sheltered under the first incarnation of Mahogany Creek inn’s roof. There they gathered, drinking and yarning around its taproom fire place, joining with stockmen, timber-getters, bullockies, and more will-to-do folk, like poets and politicians, each fuelling a legend as they emptied their mugs of ale.

The Mahogany Inn and Distillery is located on the Great Eastern Highway about 30kms east of Perth. It is one of Western Australia’s oldest operating inns and has a rich and colourful history.

Licensed as a public house to retail liquor by 32-year-old Edward John Harold Byfield in 1843, the Prince of Wales Inn opened to service travellers on the mountain road between Guildford and York.

Byfield had come to Western Australia from London aboard Westmoreland, arriving on January 2 1840. Just over 12 months after arriving, he gave notice in the Perth Gazette in February 1841 that he was intending to leave the colony. However, he had a change of heart after meeting his 20-year-old future wife, Australian-born, Jane Eliza Coates.

The pair were married in Perth on July 7 1841 and in 1843 they leased “a well known road-side house at Mahogany Creek, situated on the York Road; nine miles from Guildford” from merchants William and Robert Habgood.

The first permanent building on the site was a granite barracks, built in 1839 to house patrols for the protection of travellers on the Guildford to York Road.

In 1842, Messrs Habgood purchased 320 acres of land surrounding and including the former barracks and set up the roadside house.

Edward and Jane Byfield, with their baby son, Edward Jnr, moved into their new business venture, licensing the inn as the Prince of Wales in 1843.

The wayside inn was the first stop for the weekly mail coach after leaving Perth for York, and was a hive of activity with bullock teamsters, travellers, timber-cutters and local farmers frequenting its rowdy bar room. This era saw the construction of the inn’s older sections, establishing it as a favoured stop-over for weary travellers.

The remoteness of the Prince of Wales Inn, on the winding road over the Darling Ranges, meant the Byfields were destined to come across all sorts of unsavoury characters.

One of those characters was James Malcolm. Byfield had a visit from Malcolm on Friday January 8 1847. He had come into the Mahogany Creek inn during the afternoon to celebrate with a few drinks after coming into a money.

Malcolm remained for dinner, and ‘shouted’ several customers a few grogs. Before leaving on horseback, he called for glasses all round, and spent altogether 11 shillings at Byfields’ inn. The Byfield would later learn that their generous customer had shouted the pub after murdering and robbing an elderly man on the York Road.

Malcolm was later caught by police, confessing to the robbery and to bashing an old man to death with a stick. He was sentenced to death and executed at the scene of the murder on April 1 1847.

Business picked-up for the Byfields when in 1850, Western Australia became a penal colony. Between 1850 and 1868, 9,721 convicts were transported to Western Australia on 43 convict ship voyages.

Convict crews were immediately placed on the Guildford to York road in 1850.

The Byfields had a vice regal visitor in November 1850 as a consequence of the convict crews placed on the road passing their inn. His Excellency the Governor, Captain Charles Fitzgerald accompanied by his Private Secretary stayed at the Mahogany Creek inn for the night on a journey to inspect the road works in the region.

The crews were engaged to repair and maintain the road and meant a convict depot was needed at Mahogany Creek. The Perth Inquirer reported on August 30 1854:

As an illustration of the bad management, or rather want of management, of the parties of ticket-of-leave men employed in making or repairing roads, we are informed, on good authority, that no less than 70 men are at this moment engaged on the road near Mahogany Creek, under the direction, and supervision of only one superintendent, without the assistance of a single sub ordinate officer. It is folly to expect that, under such a system, the work can be properly performed, or that the labour of the men is economically applied; on the contrary, it is doubtless one-half lost.

The cellar of the inn was converted into a temporary hold for prisoners in the early 1850s. The remnant of the prison is preserved in the pub’s cellar, which has barred windows and an original table said to have fed the convicts.

As it is today, dealing with difficult customers as a hotelier was also a skill that had to be managed by colonial publicans, which Byfield discovered in 1852. The Perth Inquirer reported the following incident on September 22 1852:

GUILDFORD. Edward Byfield, of Mahogany Creek, was charged by Mr. Peyton Meares, with having assaulted him and torn his coat. It appeared that Mr Meares had called at the Creek, and stayed to dine, having first enquired what provant [provisions] was in the larder. Byfield said there was some nice corned beef, and that he would kill a fowl, the plaintiff however said he could not wait for that, and the beef together with some eggs, &c., were, placed on the table soon after, when Mr. Mears having seated himself called Byfield into the room and demanded whether he meant to insult him by placing salt beef on the table for a gentleman. Byfield replied by referring to Mr. Meares having said he would not wait for a fowl, when Mr. Meares attempted to throw the meat out of doors which was prevented by defendant, and Mr. Meares in rushing hastily out, slipped or stumbled on the door sill. Michael Manning who was present at the time, was called to prove the assault, but his intellects were so confused that he rambled from the subject altogether. The bench dismissed the case.

The York Road was also a favourite haunt of bushrangers and Byfields’ inn, with its barred cellar windows, would on occasions act a temporary ‘lock-up’ for the local constabulary. The Inquirer and Commercial News reported on August 20 1862:

A York correspondent informs us that on the 1st instant, a bushranger, named John Gray, who had given the police much trouble, escaped from custody. It appears that this man, who had committed many depredations in various districts, was captured by Serjeant Piesse at Mahogany Creek, and lodged in York gaol. “On Friday evening,” writes our informant, “the 1st instant, about 5 o’clock, the gaoler, who was giving the prisoners their evening meal, left Gray in the passage, and the door of exit to the street not being sufficiently secured, he made his escape. The Government Resident has offered a reward of £20 for his apprehension.”

One of the many tall tales that has evolved over the pub’s long history is the legend that notorious bushranger ‘Moondyne Joe’ escaped police custody while at the Mahogany Creek inn.

Joseph Bolitho Johns, alias Moondyne Joe, was on the run in the Darling Ranges for over two years after escaping from Fremantle Prison in 1866.

Moondyne Joe, according to local folklore, was captured at The Lakes, about 25kms east of Mahogany Creek, after the publican of an inn there suspected his identity and drugged his ale. Five minutes after drinking his ale Moondyne Joe was asleep on the bar floor and lay there till troopers arrived to take him back to Fremantle.

The story goes that Joe, however, escaped the troopers while staying overnight at Mahogany Creek, by slipping his hand cuffs off while the police rested.

The first record of this story appears in newspapers in 1929. While this is an entertaining account, no evidence – except for newspaper stories published more than 60 years after the event – can be found.

Interestingly though, the story of Moondyne Joe’s escape from custody at Mahogany Creek has similar overtones to another notorious convict of the time, who did make his bid for freedom from Byfield’s inn.

A few years before Moondyne Joe terrorised the Darling Ranges, convict, John Thomas escaped while working on a road gang, murdering 71-year-old Duncan Urquhart. The Perth Gazette reported on Friday, June 19, 1863:

In the forenoon of Tuesday last, a prisoner named Thomas made his escape from the Sutherland Bay Road Party. We understand he was tracked to Guildford and from thence to the Ferry at West Guildford where he crossed the river. In the same afternoon a hut belonging to an old man, named Urquhart, residing on the Peninsula was entered no doubt with a felonious intent. On Urquhart returning to his home he found a man in his dwelling-place and demanded his business. The intruder took up an axe and commenced a murderous attack upon the old man with that weapon.

A few days later Thomas was captured by the police and while travelling back to Perth, the convict and his captor, stayed overnight at Byfield’s wayside inn. The Perth Gazette reported on June 26 1863:

We understand however, that the single Policeman who had custody of the ruffian, was so overcome with sleep and fatigue from unceasing work for a period of three days and nights without rest, that he fell asleep in the room where he and his prisoner were, and the latter, having an unusually small hand and wrist, slipped his handcuffs and made off.

Thomas was recaptured, and after Urquhart’s death from injuries sustained in the robbery, was charged with murder. Thomas was sent to the gallows for his violent crime.

This occurred a few years before Moondyne Joe was bushranging in the region, and over time may have been confused with Thomas’ escape from the law at Mahogany Creek.

At the time of this incident, Jane Byfield was grieving the recent loss of her husband, Edward. The founder of the Mahogany Creek inn, Edward Byfield had died on January 29 1863 at age 52.

Jane was left to run the busy wayside inn on her own, and care for her eight children – all aged between two and 20. It’s little surprise than that 42-year-old Jane married just nine months later. The widow wedded 50-year-old James Dorman Gregory at Middle Swan on October 3 1863.

Gregory, who had previously been married, was an ex-Royal Naval man, serving in the Crimea War. He arrived in Australia in 1830 with his stepfather, whose name he adopted and became the second licensee of the Mahogany Creek inn.

The couple would have a son and daughter together. The daughter, born in 1868, died at Mahogany Creek at 18 months. Like she had done since 1843, Jane continued as hostess of the Prince of Wales Inn, while her husband farmed the 10 acres of cultivated land on the 320 acre grant. The farm, which included a vineyard, and orchard, employed five ticket of leave men between 1866 and 1870.

The well-known Prince of Wales Inn host, Jane Gregory, who had served as landlady for almost 30 years, died at Mahogany Creek at the age of 51 on August 29 1872.

James Gregory immediately advertised the inn for lease and retired to live with his sister Sophia Hancock after Jane’s death. He died on January 9 1879 at the age of 65 in Beverley in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.

After James Dorman Gregory, the Prince of Wales Inn, still in the ownership of the Byfield family, was leased to 29-year-old ex-cop, Henry Coppin in 1872.

Coppin and his wife Anne hosted the pub for almost a decade before they left Mahogany Creek in 1881 after the lease expired.

Henry Coppin died at Mahogany Creek in 1893 at the age of 50.

The last host of the first manifestation of the Mahogany Creek inn was John Symonds.

Symonds was born at Oxford, England, in 1832, and came to Western Australia as a teenager about 1846. As an early pioneer he was engaged in exploring Western Australia under the leadership of Henry Maxwell Lefroy, an early resident of York and prominent surveyor of the Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions.

At the age of 30, Symonds married 18-year-old Sarah Ann Thacker in 1862 at ‘Middle Swan’ in 1862, and the pair undertook agricultural pursuits.

Symonds was eventually employed at Samuel Burgess large sheep property, Tipperary, near York, where he worked as a stud-groom, a skilled farmhand involved in coordinating a wide range of horse breeding activities, carrying out mare mating procedures, caring for stallions, and establishing and conserving pastures and crops.

Symonds left the employ of Burgess to commence hotel keeping. John, now 49 and Sarah, 37, took over the operations of the Prince of Wales Hotel at Mahogany Creek. The York newspaper, the Eastern Districts Chronicle reported on January 7 1881:

We understand that the house at the Mahogany Creek on the York Road, just vacated by Mr Coppin, has been taken by Mr. Symmons [Symonds], for some time past in the service of Mr. Burges of Tipperary. The new tenant is well qualified for making this house what it should be, a place of entertainment for man and horse, something more like the house at Baylup on the Toodyay Road than it has been for some time past. Travellers on the York Road cannot fail to be satisfied at the new arrangement.

John and Sarah Symonds rented the inn, which contained five bedrooms and two sitting rooms from the Byfield brothers, renaming the business, “The Oxford Inn”.

The Symonds took over the pub on the eve of great change on the Darling Ranges. The Eastern Railway was under construction, and its completion would mean the demise of coach travel, teamsters and other travellers along the Guildford to York Road.

While the railway was under construction, the Symonds undoubtedly experienced a boost in trade, with big-drinking navvies, working on the railway, joining the bullock-drivers, timber-getters and travellers at the bar of the Mahogany Creek inn.

The pub by this time had developed a reputation for drunkenness and rowdiness. The Eastern Districts Chronicle reported on February 10 1882:

From reports that have recently reached us, we are in far greater need of an addition to our Police Force in these parts than a reduction. We are informed on good authority that the scenes which are daily being enacted at the Mahogany Creek on the York Road are a disgrace to the community. The drinking and fighting which have been going on there for the past week have been something out of the common way; teamsters in consequence lying dead drunk in their drays or waggons while travelling along the road. It is reported to us that a teamster from Northam, who was on his way from the Creek to the Warriloo in a helpless condition, would have undoubtedly been killed had not other teamsters, more steady than-himself, rendered him assistance. It seems right and reasonable that a patrol should be daily sent from Guildford to the Creek who would be directed to remain in the vicinity of that hostelry for a night occasionally to see what is going on… With reference to the Creek we have reason to believe that the landlord does all in his power to keep good order there, and manages to do so unless over-powered by numbers.

Of course, John Symonds was not too happy when reading this report in the local newspaper, and shot the following letter off to the editor of the Eastern Districts Chronicle in his defence, which was published on February 17 1882:

SIR,—In your issue of Feb. 10th, some kind friend, or rather would-be informant has reported to you that scenes are daily being enacted at the Mahogany Creek, which are a disgrace to the community. Now, Sir, I defy the person who sent you that report, to prove that any thing more disgraceful has occurred at the Creek the fourteen months I have been proprietor, than has occurred at any other public house in the colony. I believe the house has been patronized more by the settlers and men on the road, since I have been proprietor, than it has since the days of the Byfields; and I return them my humble thanks for their kind patronage. Your informant says “daily scenes”. Now, as I have had several ladies and gentlemen staying at my house during the last fortnight, I am prepared to prove that there has been very little drinking, except for one day and a half. Your kind informant has given me a stab in the dark, and a plaster for the wound afterwards. I can bear the wound, and do without the plaster. Perhaps your kind informant has been proprietor of a Hotel, or a gallon license holder and wine seller. If so, I shall be most happy to find that gentleman board and lodging for a week or two free of expense, as he may be able to give me a lesson. Also, send you a more truthful report of what occurs at the Oxford Inn; and also see if every man that is lying in is dray is drunk. And if so, if he always gets drunk at the Creek.

Yours obediently,

JNO. SYMONDS.

P.S.—If your Northern correspondent sent you the report, I would advise him to be careful where he gets his information from.

The Byfield brothers sold the Mahogany Creek property, including the inn, to Stephen Parker, a prominent politician ad Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 1883 for £450.

Symonds knew the end was neigh for the once popular wayside inn, with the Guildford to Chidlow section of the Eastern Railway nearing completion.

The Fremantle to Guildford section of the railway had opened in 1881 and when the Guildford to Chidlow line opened, it would leave Mahogany Creek, literally, high and dry, except for occasional travellers.

Symonds made plans to remove the license of the Mahogany Creek inn to a purpose built hotel at the new Chidlow rail terminus. A month before the Guildford to Chidlow section of the line was officially opened on March 11 1884, Symonds was granted permission to remove the license of the old wayside inn at Mahogany Creek to what was then known as Chidlow’s Well. Symond’s new pub retained the name Oxford Inn, and the building contained four bed-rooms and two sitting-rooms, besides the usual bar rooms, kitchen and outhouses. The original Oxford Inn at Chidlow was located the present Chidlow Tavern.

Stephen Parker transformed the old Mahogany Creek pub into a mountain retreat, where he entertained guests and held gatherings over the following years.

Owing to ill health, John Symonds retired as host of the Oxford Hotel at Chidlow’s Well at the age of 59 in August 1891. As Sarah and John had no children, the business was taken over by his nephew, Edward Symonds.

In March 1908, the ‘new’ Oxford Inn at Chidlow’s Well was destroyed by fire and the current hotel was rebuilt as an eight bedroom brick building on nearby Thomas Street. The closure of the railway in 1966 and the rerouting of Great Eastern Highway affected the prosperity of Chidlow. The inn was renamed the Chidlow Tavern in 1984.

After their retirement, the Symonds retired to a property at 80 Tower Street, Leederville (the Mitchell Freeway now runs over the site of their home) where the old stud-groom turned publican died at the age of 74 in 1906. He was buried in a massive jarrah casket in the Church of England Cemetery, Karrakatta. The following year, his widow, Sarah, at the age of 63, married a locomotive foreman, Charles Netherwood. She died in 1910 at the age of 66 and was buried with her first husband John Symonds at Karrakatta.

Meanwhile, the Mahogany Creek property was sold by Stephen Parker in 1894 to a Mr. T. Ilbury, who lived at the stone inn until 1900, when it changed hands again, a Mr. Craven taking it over.

About 1933 Mr. E. L. Ilbury, of Guildford, bought the property, bringing it back again into their family, and leased it to a Mrs. Wake, who carried on a business there as a guest house and tearooms. The old inn operated as a guest house and tea rooms for many decades.

More than 107 years after last drinks were called at Mahogany Creek the beer flowed again at the old wayside inn when a license was gained for the premises in 1991.

Today the Mahogany Inn and Distillery, just like the wayside hostelry of old, provides meals, drinks, accommodation and entertainment as it was meant to do, continuing the legacy of Edward and Jane Byfield.

Hosts of the Prince of Wales Inn, Mahogany Creek

1843 – 1863: Edward and Jane Byfield

1863 – 1872: James and Jane Gregory

1872 – 1881: Henry Coppin

1881: Name changed to Oxford Inn

1881 – 1884: John Symonds

1884: License removed to Chidlow’s Well

Oxford Inn, Chidlow’s Well

1884 – 1891: John Symonds

_{© Copyright Mick Roberts 2024}

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Categories: Australian Hotels, Perth Hotels, Western Australia hotels

Tags: bushrangers, Mahogany Creek, Oxford Inn Mahogany Creek, Prince of Wales Hotel Mahogany Creek