Antwerp Hotel

Antwerp Hotel

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History
Town	Ballarat
Street	Cnr. Pleasant and Winter Streets
Known dates	1869-1873

The Antwerp Hotel was a hotel in Ballarat, Victoria, <1869-1873>.

Site

The hotel was on the south west corner of Winter Street and Pleasant Street. This area is now part of the Pleasant Street reserve.

History

The site of the hotel was close to the Redan bluestone quarries which operated near the corner of mh:Redan:Pleasant Street and mh:Redan:La Trobe Street. These have been filled in, and are now sports grounds used by the soccer clubs. In the days when the quarries were operating they were dangerous places as this report from June 1873 shows:

"...a man named mh:Redan:Owen Cahill left the house of a relative named Cornelius Cahill, on Thursday night, in order to go to his house at the Swamp. To do this, he had to reach Pleasant-street, near the Antwerp Hotel. Yesterday morning he was found in a quarry in the vicinity, quite dead. Deceased had walked unsuspectingly to his death, as evidenced by the marks of his feet at the brink of the precipitous perpendicular wall of stone forming the side of the quarry. On falling he had clutched at the edge of the bank, the marks of his fingers being apparent on the soil. His feet also touched the stone, and left marks half-way down, and a crushed thistle and his hat and pipe showed the place of his fall. From where he had fallen to, he had walked some fifty yards, and sat down on a stone in an angle formed at the side of the quarry, and here he was found dead— sitting with his right hand holding his arm, which, upon examination, was shown to be broken and bloody. Probably it will be found that he received his death injury by falling on his head. The spot is a quarry reserve upon which no less than four streets open..."

A shocking accident occurred on Thursday evening at the Redan quarry holes. A miner, named Owen Cahill, residing near Lake Wendouree, had been at the residence of his cousin, Cornelius Cahill, a miner, working at the Koh-i-Noor claim, and left there at half-past seven that evening to go to his own place. He expressed his intention of taking a short cut to Pleasant street by way of a beaten track past several unprotected quarries. When he left the house of his cousin he was perfectly sober, not having had anything but tea to drink. He was not seen again alive, but at seven o'clock on Friday morning a quarryman, named John Butler, on going to his work, observed Cahill in a sitting posture leaning on his left side, apparently dead. Without going nearer to the deceased Butler went to several other quarrymen and told them of his apprehensions, when they returned and found that poor Cahill was quite dead. The unfortunate man had evidently got off the track, and walked over the brink of the quarry, falling a distance of seventeen feet. It seemed as if in falling he had endeavored to save himself by catching hold of the side of the precipice, for marks were observed on the surface. Information of the occurrence was conveyed to Constable Moran of the Redan police, who repaired to the scene of the accident, and found that the deceased had broken his right arm just above the elbow, and had evidently walked a few yards from where he had fallen, sat down, and died. During the day an inquest was held at the Antwerp hotel, when the evidence adduced was to the effect stated. Dr Bunce proved that beside other severe injuries, the deceased had sustained a fracture of the cervical vertebral, which was the direct cause of death. The jury in returning a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, stated that they believed he accidentally fell into the quarry, and they further found that the quarries should be fenced in, as in their present unprotected state they were most dangerous to life. The deceased has left a wife and four children.

Community Involvement

Inquests

• 30 May 1873 - on Owen Cahill, a miner who fell into the Redan quarries at night, breaking his neck.

Politics

• August 1871, Daniel Brophy addressed ratepayers at the hotel.

The People

• In April 1869 the publican was P. Krygger.
  • In December 1873 the license was granted to Peter Krygger.