Phoenix Hotel (Warrenheip)

For other hotels with similar names, see Phoenix Hotel.

Phoenix Hotel

Picture needed
History
Town	Warrenheip
Closed	June 1889
Known dates	1864-1889

The Phoenix Hotel was a hotel in Warrenheip, Victoria, <1864-1889.

Site

The hotel was in Melbourne Road, Warrenheip, but listed as Bungaree in Wise's Post Office Directory, 1888.

Background

The hotel was a six room weatherboard cottage, which was still owned by the last publican Edmund O'Neil in 1895, when it was valued at £15.

History

In May 1864 there appears to have been a wild night at the hotel, with the publican claiming he was robbed, and then he is supposed to have assaulted the robbers:

Another row in the volcanic neighborhood of Warrenheip, welled up at the Eastern Police Court, on Wednesday, for adjudication. After the Court had been occupied by its hearing for some hours, decision was postponed till Friday, when it was expected some more evidence would turn up. The offending person throughout would appear to have been Robert Bond, a publican, who on Saturday night and Sunday morning last, seems to have permitted a regular saturnalia in his licensed house, of the Irish inhabitants of the neighborhood. The whole ended with what appears to have been robbery committed on the person of Bond by his guests, under the influence of drink, and brutal assault by the landlord, his wife and others, upon the wood-splitter who is presumed to have committed the robbery. Mr Finn appeared for the wood splitter and a Mrs Taiffe, charged by Bond with receiving the money, which was contained in his trowsers pocket, and obtained by tearing away pocket and all. Counsel, however, pointed out that the injured part of the trowsers had every appearance of having been carefully cut out with a knife or a pair of scissors, and also that the plaintiff Bond would never have preferred the charge of robbery, had he not found that the defendant, the wood-splitter, had entered a charge for assault.

In June 1864, there was an inquest on German Billy, who died at the hotel:

Suicide by a German. — A man about forty years of age, locally known by no other appellation than German Billy, committed suicide at an early hour on Sunday morning, in a well at the rear of the Phœnix Hotel, Warrenheip. The deceased had been about two months in the employment of Mr Robert Bond, the landlord of the hotel, and received from him wages at the rate of fifteen shillings a week, but, being of dissipated habits, never had a shilling for the purchase of clothing. His drunkenness and disorderly conduct induced his employer to rid himself of his services, whereupon the man went to Ballaarat for a few days, and on his return to Warrenheip had money enough to pay his way. His money failing, and recourse then being had by him to the sale of such clothing as he had, for the purpose of raising money, the landlord deemed that too scandalous a thing to permit. He hung about the house notwithstanding, and compulsory abstinence rendered him sober, two pints of beer on Saturday last not tending to disturb his equilibrium. It appeared that on the Wednesday and Thursday previous he had informed a servant in the house, named Jane Sophia Pearl, that he would either hang or drown himself, and he would make that house the scene of the inquest on his body. On Saturday evening he was induced by the landlord to go to bed in a room in which also slept a man named Ryder. The servant, above-mentioned, went into the room shortly afterwards in order to get the candle. When she went in German Billy was lighting his pipe. At about three o'clock on the morning of Sunday, Mr Bond was aroused by German Billy calling for a pint of beer. The landlord refused to let him have any till daylight, and after that there was no more noise. When the servant got up about eight o'clock, she missed German Billy from his bedroom, and went elsewhere in search of him. She at last found his cold and rigid corpse in a partially stooping posture in the well, with a portion of the back of his head alone above water. These circumstances were elicited at the inquest held on the remains on Monday, and Dr. Sutherland having pronounced the cause of death to be suffocation from submersion, the jury returned a verdict to that effect, adding that the deceased had willfully destroyed himself. — Ballaarat Star, June 7.

The hotel described as new, was offered for sale in June 1864:

THURSDAY, 23rd JUNE, Twelve o'clock. To Brewers, Lemonade Manufacturers, Capitalists, &c. &c. Valuable and Most Desirable Investment. JAMES BAKER has been instructed by Mr Morgan, accountant, agent for the proprietor, Mr Robert Bond, to submit to public auction, at the Unicorn Hotel, Sturt street, Ballarat, on Thursday next, the 23rd day of June, All that freehold allotment 9, section 3, being 23 acres, in the rising parish of Warrenheip, situated about 4 miles from Ballarat, on the Melbourne road, having a frontage to ditto of the newly-erected HOTEL, the Phoenix, stands on the west comer of the estate, and will be included in the purchase. The auctioneer would remark that this property is rendered of considerably higher value in consequence of there being a never-failing spring of pure water therein, which is invaluable in that dry locality. Title - Crown grant. Terms-Cash. N.B.-The entire block is fenced in.

The hotel closed in June 1889:

The license of the Phœnix hotel, Warrenheip, was yesterday surrendered without claim for compensation by the licensee, Edmund O’Neill, who had purchased the Brewery Tap hotel The surrender was accepted, and the court cancelled the license.

After the hotel closed, it was leased as a residence for 2/- per week.

The People

Publicans

• In June 1864 the publican was Robert Bond.
• In October 1864 the license was granted to Michael Dunn.
• In December 1873 the license was granted to Denis McInerney.
• In December 1877 the license was granted to Bridget McInerny.
  • Her license was renewed in December 1880 and 1884.
• In December 1885 the publican's license was granted to Edward ONeill in lieu of transfer.
• In June 1889, the publican and owner, Edward O'Neill (should be Edmund O'Neil), surrendered the license as he had taken over a nearby hotel (the Brewery Tap Hotel).

Staff

• June 1864 - Jane Sophia Pearl, servant.