Licensing Court 1911 hearings

The License Reduction Board met during 1911 and recommended delicensing 11 hotels in Ballarat.

Court hearings

The Court met during 1911 to hear submissions about which hotels should be closed and which should remain open:

ELEVEN BALLARAT HOTEL CLOSED. The Licenses Reduction Board sat at the Supreme Court on Saturday morning, and announced the hotels to be closed in the Ballarat East and West Licensing districts. Nine have been deprived of their licenses in the City and two in the East. The report prepared by the board with the findings, is as follows :-Ballarat East—The statuary number of hotels in the district, based upon the estimated population, is 37 and the existing number 41, leaving an excess of 4. Since 1906 the excess has fluctuated be tween 3 and 6. The board has limited its closing determination to the houses in the outskirts, each of which is close to another hotel which has superior claims to remain in a locality where, in our opinion, there is no need for two.
Ballarat West.— This district presents a most difficult problem. The statutory number is 31, and the existing number. 76, an excess of 42, though 7 were closed by the board at its sittings in 1908. This excess is very heavy, even allowing for the facts that Ballarat is the second city in Victoria, that the excess in the adjoining district is small, and that the requirements of the people who made it their business centre, as well as of the travelling public who visit it in large numbers, must be considered in addition to its resident population. We have taken the most congested blocks, and selected those which we think the weakest, having regard to all the surround taken as to the requirements of the farmers from the surrounding districts, whose market centre is Ballarat. We have given special consideration to this evidence. It must be remembered, how ever, that the principal demand in this connection is upon one or two days a week, and in several instances the hotels whose claims to remain are largely based upon this class of trade have very little accommodation to cater for it, and none of them seem to have made any extensive alterations in order to do so. In making any substantial reduction a proportion of each class of house must be closed, for it would be manifestly unfair to confine all- our operations to certain classes, and leave others untouched. Since the hearing the board has received from the owner and licensee of the Grand Hotel, Lydiard street, an application for the surrender of the license. This hotel being in the list is accordingly included in those to be deprived, but as the parties interested desire to close at the end of the present month, the surrender will be formally accepted at the conclusion of the present proceedings. The board therefore finds that the licensed victuallers’ premises in the licensing districts set out are not necessary, and determines that each of the said, premises shall be deprived of its license.

List of closed hotels

Ballarat East Licensing District:

• All Nations Hotel, Canadian
• Belle Vue, Peel street.

Ballarat West Licensing District:

• Australian Arms, Sturt street
• British, Doveton street
• Corner, Sturt street
• Gem, Armstrong street
• Grand, Lydiard street
• Horse Bazaar, Armstrong street;
• Lady of the Lake, Armstrong street;
• Royal Don, Mair street;
• Sale Yards, Doveton street.

See also

• Licensing Court 1888 hearings
• Licensing Court 1891 hearings
• Licensing Court 1892 hearings
• Licensing Court 1922 hearings