Pubs of Greenbushes
The historic town of Greenbushes was first talked about by thirsty travellers stopping to water their horses at a well surrounded by “green bushes” on the roadside between Bunbury and Manjimup in the mid 1800’s.
The discovery of tin by David Stinton in 1888 saw the area become the first gazetted minerals field in Western Australia with a subsequent influx of miners.
Over the ensuing years the town of Greenbushes became well known for the number of “watering” holes it had to quench the thirst of its many miners.
A total of nine hotels were built over a period of about 10 years from the late 1800’s to 1907.
In 1904 an extract from the rates book notes there were 157 miners, nine storekeepers, eight publicans, seven carriers, two carpenters, two tinsmiths and various boarding house keepers, tailors, bootmakers, fruiterers, bakers, saddlers, blacksmiths, graziers and timber lessees.
The population continued to grow and in the town’s heyday during the early 1900’s reached its peak of 3,000.
Back in those rough, tough days newspaper articles document that the law took a grim view of Sunday drinking.
The Sunday Times Newspaper in 1911 tells of three men who fell foul of the laws prohibiting people from being “on premises” in Greenbushes on Sundays.
One defendant appearing before the magistrate offered the excuse that he had only called at the hotel to deliver a message to the landlord from a man who was laid up in hospital. Even though the arresting constable agreed there was no sign of drinking, the defendant was fined four shillings and ordered to pay two shillings costs.
Another luckless defendant said that he had visited the hotel to have the housemaid dress wounds to his hands sustained in an explosion of acetylene gas. And yet another said he had only gone to the hotel to have tea and play cards.
The resident magistrate, who was also chairman of the licensing courts, was not moved by the defendant’s pleas.
A fall in the price of tin around 1911 saw the population of Greenbushes decline with the resulting disappearance of many of the grand old hotels.
One hotel, The Courthouse, was dismantled and transported to Pemberton where it was rebuilt and renamed the Pemberton Hotel. Another, the Duke of York Hotel, was demolished and used to complete extensions to Bunbury’s Highway Hotel.
Over time the various other hotels disappeared from the streetscape with vacant blocks now the only reminder of their glorious past. One hundred and eighteen years later only two of the original nine hotels still stand but they are well worth a visit. The Exchange Hotel on the southern end of the town’s main street and the Shamrock Hotel on the northern end are a testament to the town’s early prosperity.
The Exchange Hotel (circa 1907) is a brick double storey building with an elaborate plaster pediment on the front façade. Although the original verandahs have been replaced by an awning, the building retains a high level of original details both externally and internally. The building contains original leadlights, fine jarrah detailing including the staircase and balustrade.
The building is typical of hotels built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in Western Australia. Today it boasts simple but comfortable accommodation, an excellent dining room and Stinton’s Café.
An area of subsidence at the rear of the Exchange Hotel has puzzled many residents. Some believe it is the remnants of an old mine tunnel which, fortuitously for thirsty miners, surfaced at the rear of the hotel.
The town’s other watering hole, the Shamrock Hotel was built in 1900 and is a two storey building with an intact first floor verandah. It is a popular venue for the thirsty traveller. Accommodation is available. A wine saloon when it first opened the premises became known as the Welford Hotel in 1901 and by 1910 had changed its name to the Shamrock.