Carbine Hotel

Carbine Hotel

Former hotel, date unknown
History
Town	Ballarat
Street	Sturt Street
Opened	June 1889
Closed	31 December 1915
Known dates	1889-1915
Other names	Isbell's Family Hotel Belle Vue Hotel Morgan Lees' Hotel All Nations Hotel Sussex Hotel Olive Branch Hotel Royal Standard Hotel

The Carbine Hotel was a hotel in Ballarat, Victoria, 1889-1915.

Site

The Carbine Hotel was in Sturt Street. The Carbine Hotel was on the south east corner of Sturt Street and Windermere Street. This is now (2017) the site of an ANZ bank branch.

Location

Address: 927 Sturt Street. Google Maps: -37.561068,143.846121

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Background

The hotel was first named:

• Isbell's Family Hotel
• Belle Vue Hotel
• Morgan Lees' Hotel
• All Nations Hotel.

Hargreaves reported that an old resident had also said the hotel traded under other names, but he was unable to confirm this:

• Sussex Hotel
• Olive Branch Hotel
• Royal Standard Hotel

History

In June 1889, the publican, John Bailey had the name changed from the All Nations Hotel to Bailey's Carbine Hotel.

In December 1889 the Licensing Court visited the hotel as part of the inspection:

The members of the Ballarat Licensing Court, His Honor Judge Gaunt, and Messrs Thomson and Heron, P.M’s., paid a visit of inspection yesterday to two houses, Leech’s Carbine hotel, Sturt street, and Ryan’s Bridge hotel, Peel street, the licenses of which had been objected to by Inspector Parkinson. The grounds of the objections were, in each ease, that the premises were not kept in a proper state of repair. On returning into court the chairman remarked that the former hotel was terribly dilapidated, and in fact would require a new building erected to make it suitable for an hotel. Under the circumstances of the case, as a great amount of work had been done, they had determined to renew the license for this year...His Honor remarked that in future they would not make any inspections to see whether anything had been done since the visit of the inspector, but would decide by the condition of the houses at the time they were inspected. An hotel should be in good repair all the year round, not merely just in order before licensing day.

In May 1897 the council was notified that Kell and Miller, architects, had called for tenders to rebuild the front rooms of the hotel.

In July 1897 the City Council had ordered repairs to be made to the hotel:

From Mrs Flannery, promising to effect repairs to the Carbine hotel within the prescribed time.

The hotel was advertising accommodation in October 1904:

Persons visiting Ballarat may find good accommodation at moderate rates at Mr. J. Blackburn's Carbine hotel, at the corner of Sturt and Windermere streets.

In February 1908 there was a strike by teenage tram conductors in Ballarat, which affected a group of Western Australian firemen staying at the hotel:

At the Carbine Hotel, Sturt-street, where the Cue (Western Australia) fire brigade is staying, a notice has been posted at the entrance to the premises to the effect that any members of the brigade patronising the trams during the strike will be disqualified, from taking part in the forthcoming demonstrations to be held in Ballarat shortly.

On 22 March 1915, the Carbine Hotel was included on a list of hotels to be deprived of their licenses. This list was complied by the Licenses Reduction Board in Melbourne. The Ballarat West licensing district hearings on this list were to be held on 27 April.

At the hearing evidence about the hotel was presented:

Evidence was given that the Carbine Hotel was a convenience to visitors to the hospital on visiting and other days, though the trade returns showed the turnover to be small.

The decision was made to close the hotel, and the court paid £600 compensation. The hotel was one of about 40 hotels closed by the License Reduction Board and ceased trading at 9.30pm on 31 December 1915.

The People

• In June 1889 the publican was John Bailey.
• In June 1891 the license was transferred from M. Grey (misspelled as Gray) to W. H. Magor.
• In October 1891 an application was made to transfer the license from M. Major to N. Flannery:

Application was made for the transfer of license from M. Major, of the Carbine hotel, to N. Flannery. Refused, as the advertisement was a day late owing to an error in the application.

• In May 1903 the license was transferred from Christopher Robinson to John Dow.
• In October 1904 the publican was J. Blackburn.
• In June 1909 the license was transferred from Margaret Adagh to Bernard P. Ryan.
• In April 1915 the licensee was Mary Ellen McCrae and the owner was Norah Flannery.