By MICK ROBERTS ©
ALL within a short walk from Sydney Harbour’s docks, during the 19th century, once traded four pubs known as the Whalers Arms.
Rubbing shoulders in the cramped, crowded bars and taprooms of the inns and public houses were American, Maori and South Sea Islander whalers and sealers, ex-convicts, soldiers and ladies of the night, indulging in their favoured drink of the day, rum and water, with perhaps a dash of vitriol.
The crews of the whaling and sealing vessels that docked at Millers Point preferred and were always quick to make their way to Sydney pubs with signs like Three Jolly Sailors, the Sheer Hulk, the Sailor’s Return, the Ocean Wave, and of course, The Whalers Arms.
There were four pubs trading either at the same time or at various periods under the sign of the Whalers Arms in Sydney’s Rocks and Millers Point from 1831 through to when the last closed its doors in 1893.
The four Whalers Arms at The Rocks and Millers Point
1. Corner of Pottinger Street and Windmill Street (1831 – 1842)
2. Corner of Lower Fort Street and Mill Street (Traded as the Young Princess from 1840 to 1847 before changing its sign to the Whalers Arms from 1847 to 1850 and from 1860 to 1870).
3. Corner Argyle Street and Windmill Street (1847 – 1893). Opened in 1847 by James Merriman, and closed in June 1893 when Alfred Jordan was refused a renewal, “as the house is utterly unfit for a hotel”.
James Merriman was born at Parramatta in the year 1817. He was closely connected with shipping interests, trading between Sydney and New Zealand. He held whaling interests and pioneered the pearl shell industry in the Torres Straits. He opened the Whalers Arms at the end of Windmill Street at Millers Point in 1843, and was publican until 1860. In his later life, Merriman was elected an alderman on Sydney Council, serving several terms as mayor. He died in 1883.
4. Corner of Gloucester Street and Cumberland Place (1851 – 1893). Opened by John Sims in 1851 and traded until 1893. The license was refused in June 1893 as “the house being a very old one”, and was “without the required standard of accommodation”.
Whalers Arms, Gloucester Street, The Rocks
The Whalers Arms, at the corner of Gloucester Street and Cumberland Place,
in Sydney’s Rocks was established in 1830 as The Patrick Inn.
The pub was first licensed to James Byrne as The Saint Patrick Inn from 1830 until his death “after a long and painful illness” in February 4 1838. His widow, Sarah Byrne took over the license and hosted the pub until 1842.
William Amner was host of The Saint Patrick Inn from 1842 to 1844 until his retirement.
The Saint Patrick Inn closed for business in 1844 and remained unlicensed until 1851 when John Sims relicensed the building as the Whalers Arms in May 1851.
Sims owned whaling vessels, and was generally connected with whaling interests. His ships traded with New Zealand, and it is said that as many Maoris as white people were to be found at the bar of the Whalers’ Arms. Indeed, the lane alongside the pub was known as Maori-Lane.
Merchant sailors would climb their way up from ‘Circular Wharves’ by a staircase cut from the sandstone escarpment and known as Cribb Lane. The bar of the Whalers Arms was a gritty, dimly lit, and was a bustling establishment, likely featuring dark, polished timber, beer engines, and sawdust on the floor. Sawdust was common on the floors to absorb spilled drinks, tobacco, and mud from the street.
Situated in a rough maritime neighbourhood, the Sims served sailors, labourers, and residents with cheap ale and spirits, characterised by cramped, smoky conditions and lively, often raucous, atmosphere.
A correspondent described the lanes and streets of The Rocks in a story published in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 7, 1858:
The ‘Rocks’ are occupied by several so called streets, running longitudinally like terraces, the names of the more remarkable of which are Harrington, Cambridge, and Gloucester streets. There are also several cross lanes or passages, the ascent of which is sometimes facilitated by steps ; these are named on the map Essex-street, Essex lane, Brown Bear-lane, Globe-street, Cribb-lane, but the more significant name of Gallows Hill yet cleaves, I believe, to one of those. But in reality these streets are at least not roads, being scarcely traversable by vehicles, and destitute of all signs of forming, metalling, guttering, sewering. The houses which line them are small and comparatively ancient stone cottages, so unevenly and irregularly built that the doorstep of one residence sometimes approximates to the eaves of another. Where the erections are of wood their dilapidated, filthy appearance is all the more striking. The interior of these abodes usually consists of two dirty bare rusty-coloured chambers, of small size, and yet too large for the scanty articles which constitute their furniture. Of the inhabitants I will not say much : in some cases misfortune may have led and may keep them there ; but in others the unhappy, debauched, wicked face, the slovenly, dirtily clothed person, tell too plain a tale. A young intoxicated woman with a black eye and bruised forehead, and a shrivelled old dame with a face of yellow brown colour, sitting in a poverty-stricken room, enchained my attention — they were striking pictures of the first and last ages of vice. But what chiefly requires remedy in this ill-favored locality, is the utter absence of all means of drainage or of removing filthy matter, which consequently lies where it is and poisons the ground beneath and the air above. It is a positive fact that in many cases the foul drainage of one cottage trickles down the hill till it encounters, as the case may be, the back or front wall of the house next below ; here it accumulates, soaking down into the foundations, or sometimes actually running in at the door. In other houses the occupants have prevented this accumulation by constructing a drain close beneath the floor, and running quite through the house. Certainly, a flowing stream of filth is to be preferred to a stagnant pool. The various rejectamenta of more solid nature which lie about the yards and streets where they chance to fall, of course add to the foul appearance and smell. Again, in many cases, the front or back of a house, or in some places of a whole row of houses, stand close to a wall of rock, upon the summit of which are erected the privies of the next higher row of houses, while various channels and shoots discharge incessant streams of drainage. What can be conceived more unwholesome than these moist surfaces of filth exposed to the sun’s rays by any, and at night filling the whole surrounding still atmosphere with malaria.
Sims’ wife, Mary Ann, died at the Whalers Arms on January 1, 1852 and the widower was left to care for eight children. The following year he leased the business to Thomas Rogers.
A number of publicans hosted the Whalers Arms through the 1850s, with Sims returning as licensee in 1857.
Lessee, William Dawson, abandoned the pub in 1857, and as a result the license was cancelled. Sims returned as publican, advertising the Whalers Arms was “undergoing a thorough repairing inside and out”. However, Sims return as publican was brief. He died at the pub on September 25 1858 at the age of 58.
Sims, who was greatly respected, had become a wealthy man, and, at his death, left properties at Balmain, Surry Hills, and other parts of Sydney.
The pub remained in the ownership of the Sims family until December 1869 when it was sold at auction for £600 to a Mr. P. Finnigan.
The executors of Sims estate leased the Whalers Arms to Peter Mann in December 1858.
An Englishman, born in Devonshire, Mann, was 30 and married with a young family when he took over as host of the Whalers Arms.
Mann remained as publican of the Whalers Arms for eight years before taking-over a pub at the corner of Kent Street and Charlotte Place, Sydney in 1866. He remained host of Mann’s Hotel, until his death in 1869 at the age of 41, leaving a wife and three daughters.
William Merchant, a 36-year-old Londoner, became host of the Whalers Arms in 1866, and, with his wife, Bridget, and young family were at the helm for eight years.
After leaving the Whalers Arms, the Merchants remained living in Gloucester Street, where William worked as a night-watchman. He died on September 27, 1883, at his residence, 40 Gloucester Street, The Rocks aged 53.
After the Merchants left the Whalers Arms in 1874, the pub had a succession of publicans as host, with seemingly finding it difficult to make a living from the pub.
The next real long-stay host of the Whalers Arms, would also be its last.
Thomas Hughes was 29 years of age, and his wife, Mary, 25, when they became hosts of the Whalers Arms in 1886.
The Irish couple would host the Whalers Arms for seven years before the courts refused to renew their license in 1893. The Sydney Evening News reported on June 9 1893:
Thomas Hughes made application for the renewal of Whalers’ Arms, Gloucester-street. It was shown that this house had been a licensed one for considerably over 40 years, and as it was too ancient for a modern hotel, and the bench considering that it had had its innings, the application was refused.
Thomas Hughes and his wife would have served a rough-and-ready crowd, including sailors from all over the world, dock workers, local residents, and possibly women.
The scene was characterised by loud conversation, smoke from pipes and tobacco, and a high-energy, crowded, and occasionally violent atmosphere.
After the Whalers Arms closed, the Hughes went on to host a number of other Sydney pubs, including the Mercantile Rowing Club Hotel, Gloucester and George Streets, Sydney (1893 – 1896), the British Seaman’s Hotel, which likely later became known as Hughes Family Hotel at Argyle and Harrington Streets.
Less than two months before his death, Thomas Hughes was fined £3 and 6s, with 6 pence costs for permitting liquor to be drunk in his pub on a Sunday. He died aged just 43 on 13 October 1900. His wife Mary died five years later at the age of 44 in 1904.
The last publicans of the Whalers Arms at The Rocks were laid to rest in the Catholic portion of the Rookwood Cemetery.
By 1901, the former Whalers Arms was a lodging house run by Mary and Joseph Awlsbury. It was demolished in 1907.
Licensees of The Saint Patrick Inn and later Whalers Arms, Gloucester Street, The Rocks, Sydney.
The Saint Patrick Inn
1830 – 1838: James Byrne
1838 – 1842: Sarah Byrne
1842 – 1844: William Amner
1844: John Blackwell
The Whalers Arms
1851 – 1853: John Sims
1853 – 1856: Thomas Rogers
1856 – 1856: John O’Brien
1856 – 1857: William Dawson
1858 – 1858: John Sims
1858 – 1866: Peter Mann
1866 – 1874: William Merchant
1874 – 1875: James Earea
1875 – 1877: Bridget O’Donnell
1877 – 1878: John Barnett
1878 – 1881: Richard Farrell
1881 – 1884: Thomas Parker
1884 – 1885: Gilbert Georgeson
1885 – 1886: Eugene Moyon
1886 – 1886: Thomas J. McEnery
1886 – 1893: Thomas Hughes
The Whalers Arms, corner of Lower Fort and Mill Streets, Millers Point
This story focuses on the history of the Whalers Arms, which was located a short walk from what was at the time the Sydney Harbour ferry services at Millers Point.
A well-trodden stone-paved laneway runs from Pottinger Street to Windmill Street at Millers Point, with the name Ferry Lane. It’s a clue to a much livelier time, before the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, and when ferries were the only means of connecting Sydney’s north and south.
Most are familiar with the landmark pub, the Hero of Waterloo at Millers Point, sitting on the corner of Lower Fort and Windmill Streets, however, the story of the Whalers Arms on the opposite corner is much less told.
The dramatic tale of the Hero of Waterloo’s unsuspecting patrons who drank themselves into a stupor and were pushed through a trap door and carried through underground tunnels to waiting ships is a well-recited story. Like the Hero of Waterloo, the Whalers Arms too was reportedly a pub for recruiting crews.
The Whalers Arms at the corner of Lower Fort and Windmill Streets called last drinks as a pub in 1870 under the sign of ‘Brown’s Family Hotel’. Today it’s a private residence.
The small corner pub started trading life in 1840 as the Young Princess, before adopting the sign ‘Whalers Arms’ in 1847.
The name Whalers Arms was taken from an earlier pub, which had closed for business in 1842, and was located a few blocks west on the eastern corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets.
The earlier Whalers Arms and the Young Princess were both established by accomplished boat-builder, Joseph Faris.
When 24-year-old Joseph Faris established the first Whalers Arms near Millers Point wharves in 1831, the area was alive with hard-drinking merchant seamen, boat-builders and dock-workers.
Millers Point developed from the 1820s, beginning with small private wharves for the early colonial trade of precious timbers like sandalwood and cedar, and for the whaling and seal industry. It was a crucial location for early American whalers, with the wharves supporting their trade along the coast.
Faris and his wife, Elizabeth were married in London in 1829 before arriving in Sydney in 1830. Farris established a boat-building business at Millers Point, before gaining a license for a stone inn at the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets.
In a series of history articles by ‘Old Chum’, documenting Sydney’s early European history, the location of the original of Whalers Arms is revealed.
Old Chum was the pen name of journalist Joseph Michael Forde (1840-1929), who wrote a series of history articles for the newspaper Truth beginning around 1901 through to 1902. His articles, which were under the heading ‘Old Sydney’, covered a wide range of Sydney’s history, and his work was popular with the public. In an article published in the Sydney Truth on 2 February 1902 Forde revealed the location of the original Whalers Arms:
Old Sydney – The Rocks – By Old Chum
Windmill Street – The big stone house at the corner of Pottinger-street is perhaps the oldest house in the neighborhood. The street has been considerably raised since it was built, and from the front it looks dwarfed. From Pottinger-street its size is seen to better advantage. In the twenties it was a public-house and if the curious in such matters will look on the eastern gable, they will still be able to read the name, the Whalers’ Arms, indicating the business done in the neighborhood, and the trade it courted. Its thick walls and solid foundations appear to have been beaten by time, and before the year expires the old house will be of the past. When the whalers deserted the spot, the house changed its name to the Napoleon Inn, being one of three having the same name in the locality at various times.
In another article in the series, Forde writes:
“The Whalers Arms was strategically positioned at the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets. Pottinger Street led to the Sydney Harbour ferry services at the time. It was also where a number of boat-building business operated, making it an ideal pub for travellers, sailors, and maritime workers…”
Joseph and Elizabeth Faris moved into the Whalers Arms with their baby girl in 1831. At the time there was just one other pub in Windmill Street – Moses Solomon’s Steam Packet Inn.
By 1833, two more children, Joseph Jnr and Thomas, were added to the Faris family. With their three children, Joseph and Elizabeth made a return trip to London in 1835, and leased the Whalers Arms to John Redgrave.
The family returned to Sydney the following year and Faris returned as licensee, hosting the Whalers Arms from 1837 to March 1840.
During these years, Faris continued with his boat-building business, establishing a reputation for his craft. The Sydney Monitor reported on 6 June 1838 that he “just turned out of his building yard, a six oared galley, for the water-police station at Garden Island”.
On his return to Sydney, Faris found Windmill Street had become a busy high street, with several public houses, general stores and other houses of business. Beside the Whalers Arms, four pubs were trading in Windmill Street in 1840.
- Hit or Miss (Pictured below) was located directly opposite the Whalers Arms at the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets.
- Napoleon Inn
- Ship Inn
- Steam Packet
The license of the Whalers Arms was transferred from Faris to Patrick Byrne on March 3 1840. In turn, Faris, now 33, took the reins of a newly built pub on the northern corner of Fort and Windmill Streets by the name of the Young Princess.
This is where the history of the Whalers Arms becomes a little complicated. Faris’ Young Princess would later change its sign to the Whalers Arms. We’ll get to that a little later in the story.
Meanwhile the original Whalers Arms continued to trade at the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets with Patrick Byrne at the helm. Byrne wrote the following letter to the editor of the Sydney Herald on 11 December 1841 highlighting the violence often experienced in colonial Windmill Street.
To the Editors of the Sydney Morning Herald
GENTLEMEN, – A statement having been inserted in your columns of this day, describing a fracas which occurred yesterday opposite my house the Whalers Arms, Windmill street, wherein it is erroneously mentioned, that I stood unconcernedly by whilst two ruffians, who came out of my door stripped, ill treated two sailors. I request in justice to myself that you will insert a statement of the facts, which were simply these :- A sailor, a powerful man, belonging to the Colombine, endeavoured during the afternoon several times to create a quarrel with some of his shipmates and the emigrants who came out in the vessel, so much so that I had been compelled on more than one occasion to interfere, to prevent tumult at the time your informant passed, the two sailors had been fighting with two emigrants but finding they were getting the worst of it set down, and was so struck by an emigrant by their own vessel, named Kelly. So far from not interfering, I had just previously despatched a constable for assistance, as there was every reason to suppose that the sailors, who were all away from the ship, would make a general attack upon the emigrants. I had some time previously refused to serve any of them with drink, and shut the door and windows of my house. And in conclusion, had I attempted to interfere, singly it would have ensured me a broken head at least. Trusting the foregoing explanation will prevent the character of my house suffering through the misrepresentation of any person.
I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
PATRICK BYRNE.
P. S. The two sailors, who your informant states were ill-treated, were subsequently taken to the watchhouse by the police, at the urgent request of the Captain of the vessel and the Wharfinger, for their mutinous conduct.
The original Whalers Arms at the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets closed for business in April 1842 when its license was removed to new “commodious” premises on the corner of York and Broughton Streets, Sydney.
The Pottinger Street building remained unlicensed as a public house for many years until Robert Battley made an unsuccessful attempt at reviving the former Whalers Arms. He gained a new license for the building in April 1849 under the sign of the Ferry Inn. However, the venture was unsuccessful and the pub had closed again before the end of the year.
Another failed attempt at reviving the pub was made by Robert Bush in 1855 under the sign of the Steam Ferry Inn. However, like the previous attempt, it had closed within a year. What the old pub became after closing is a mystery. However, it’s likely it became warehouse storage in connection with the nearby wharfs.
The first Whalers Arms at Pottinger and Windmill Streets was eventually demolished in 1902 as part of the Government’s urban renewal program.
Buildings were demolished in The Rocks and surrounding districts primarily because of the 1901 bubonic plague outbreak, which led to fears of contagion and spurred public health-driven slum clearance. The demolitions were intended to improve the unsanitary conditions of the area, which was a densely populated and impoverished neighborhood at the time.
Faris named his new pub after the popular Queen Victoria. Having ascended to the throne at age 18 in 1837, she was widely referred to in British colonies as the “Young Queen” or “Young Princess” before her marriage to Prince Albert on February 10, 1840. The year 1840 was a significant year for Queen Victoria, as she married and survived her first assassination attempt, which made her popular, and she became pregnant with her first child.
Faris was host of the ‘Young Princess’ at Millers Point from 1840 to 1844 when he fell into financial difficulties. He was declared insolvent in July 1844 and the license of the inn was transferred to Edward Dunn.
Shipwright, Jonathan Brown and his wife, Catherine purchased the Whalers Arms in 1847. It was the Browns who changed the name of the Young Princess to the Whalers Arms in August 1847.
In 1848, the pub sat amongst a rough, industrial, and maritime-focused working-class residential area, featuring sandstone cottages, workers’ housing, and landmark buildings like the Hero of Waterloo Hotel.
The area was a residential hub for sailors, wharf labourers, and craftsmen working at the nearby Cockle Bay (now Darling Harbour) wharves, and was characterised by cramped, tightly packed dwellings.
In March 1848 the lifeless body of 21-year-old John Palmer was brought into the Whalers Arms late on a Friday night after he fell into nearby Sydney Harbour.
The unfortunate man, a steward aboard the barque Cadet, was returning to his vessel after enjoying a colonial ale at the Whalers Arms. As he was boarding he stumbled and fell from a stage leading off Buchanan’s Wharf and drowned.
After he was fished out of the harbour, his body was brought to the Whalers Arms where “remedies were applied for the restoration of animation, but without effect”.
An inquest was held at the Whalers Arms the following day, where a jury found he had accidentally drowned. A request was made to the Coroner that representations be made to masters of ships and wharfingers to “erect proper and safe stages to vessels lying alongside wharves in the harbour”.
To confuse matters for historians, another Whalers Arms was licensed at Millers Point 1849. This pub was hosted for many years by James Merriman and was located in Argyle Street. However, that’s a story for another day.
Meanwhile 41-year-old Joseph Faris recovered from his financial problems and took the license of the Shakespeare Tavern “opposite the Royal Victoria Theatre” in Pitt Street Sydney during 1848. He continued in his profession of innkeeper at the Shakespeare from 1847 to 1854.
John Faris died at the age of 52 while visiting London in 1859. His wife Elizabeth returned to Sydney where she died at Waverley at the age of 76 in 1886.
The Faris’ eldest son, Joseph Junior also became a publican and hosted the Queens Arms Hotel, at the corner of Bourke Street and South Head Road, Surry Hills during the 1850s and 60s. He was killed in an accident while crossing railway lines while working at Redfern Railway Station in 1871.
Getting back to the Whalers Arms, at the corner of Fort and Windmill Streets; hosts Jonathan and Catherine Brown held the license until 1850, when the couple took-over the lease of the Hero of Waterloo Hotel on the opposite corner.
After four years at the helm of the Whalers Arms, the Browns would go on to host the Hero of Waterloo on the opposite corner.
Just a few years after opening their pub on the corner of Windmill and Lower Fort Streets, the Brown’s watched as the much-classier, three-storey Hero of Waterloo Hotel rose from its sandstone foundations on the opposite corner.
The convict-bult pub was constructed between 1843 and 1844 by George Paton, a Scottish stonemason who used stone from the nearby Argyle Cut. Officially licensed in 1845, the hotel is known for its thick sandstone walls and notorious legends of earlt maritime shanghaiing.
The Browns closed the Whalers Arms and became hosts of the newly built Hero of Waterloo in 1850. In turn the Whalers Arms became a general store operated by Isabella Brown.
The Browns placed the following advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald on 1 August 1850:
HERO OF WATERLOO, FORT-STREET
JONATHAN BROWN respectfully intimates to his friends and the public, that he has fitted up the above Tavern with every thing suitable for the accommodation of travellers or other persons visiting Sydney requiring Board and Lodging. He intends conducting the house on the most economical principles, and flatters himself, from his past experience and his determination to sell the best article that the market can produce at the lowest remunerating price, to meet with the approbation and encouragement of the public generally.
N B.-Masters of vessels would find this house in every way suitable to them, from its convenient distance to all the principal wharves.
On February 7 1853, Jonathan Brown’s father, Robert died in Belfast and the Sydney publican made the long journey back to Ireland to sort out his affairs. However, while the publican was in England, tragedy struck.
Jonathan Brown died in Wen, Shropshire “after a few hours illness” on August 30 1854. His wife, Catherine continued as a hotelier in and around Millers Point after her husband’s death, including as host of the Hero of Waterloo.
Meanwhile the former Whalers Arms operated as a general store for almost a decade before again becoming a pub in 1860.
Robert Brown, likely a brother of Jonathan Brown, re-licensed the general store as a pub in April 1860. He didn’t stay long as publican though, and the license was transferred to Thomas Dodd before the end of the year.
Dodd persevered with the pub, which obviously was struggling to make a profit. Dodd pleaded guilty to having “abandoned his licensed public-house” in June 1864 and the license of the Old Whalers’ Arms was cancelled.
The following month, Edward Doyle and his wife Maria were successful in gaining a new license for the pub and they continued as hosts for a year before tragedy struck.
Just a few weeks after gaining the license, Edward Doyle died at the pub aged 47 after “a long and painful illness” in July 1865.
This is where 55-year-old Catherine Brown appeared back on the scene and reopened the pub. The widower changed the name to Brown’s Family Hotel, and included a wine and spirit store in the business.
After her husband’s death in England in 1854 Catherine Brown had become the first publican of the newly built Paragon Hotel at Circular Quay in 1860. However, an attempt to revive the old Whalers Arms at the corner of Fort and Windmill Streets, Millers Point, would be a failure.
Brown advertised the lease, furniture, license, goodwill, and bar fittings for sale in 1869 and before the end of the year the pub would close for the last time.
The following year William Fisher was operating the building as a “Shipping and Family Grocer”.
Catherine Brown took the license of the Gladstone Hotel in the long gone Clyde Street at Millers Point in 1871. She held the license of the Gladstone Hotel until her death in 1875 at the age of 64.
Following the decision to retain the Rocks and Millers Point for its cultural significance, the old Whalers Arms building passed into the ownership of the State Government and eventually to the NSW Land and Housing Corporation.
In the last decade of the 20th century the building ceased to be occupied and was subject to vandalism and the ravages of a severe white ant infestation.
In 2005, a 99-year lease was purchased of the old Whalers Arms, and since 2006 it has been renovated as a private residence.
Licensees of the original Whalers Arms
Corner Windmill and Pottinger Streets, Millers Point
1831 – 1835: Joseph Faris
1835 – 1836: John Redgrave
1836 – 1837: Henry Griffith
1837 – 1838: Joseph Faris
1838 – 1839: George Clarke
1839 – 1840: Joseph Faris
1840 – 1842: Patrick Byrne
1842 – 1842: John Holmes
License removed from Whalers Arms to Young Prince of Wales, York and Broughton Streets, Sydney.
Licensees of the Young Princess
Corner of Lower Fort and Windmill Streets, Millers Point
1840 – 1844: Joseph Faris
1844 – 1844: Edward Dunn
1844 – 1846: Edward Hancock
1846 – 1847: John Barber
1847 – Jonathan Brown
1847 Name changed to the Whalers Arms
1847 – 1850: Jonathan Brown
1850 Whalers Arms closed
Operated as grocery store
1860 Whalers Arms reopens
1860 – 1860: Robert Brown
1860 – 1864: Thomas Dodd
1864 – 1865: Edward Doyle
1865 – 1866: Maria Doyle
1866 Name Changed to Brown’s Family Hotel
1866 – 1870: Catherine Brown
Hotel closed
© Copyright Mick Roberts 2025
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Categories: Australian Hotels, NSW hotels, Sydney hotels
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