Our bibulous Shipping Reporter has returned from a quick voyage to Van Diemen's Land where he drank in the local , thirsty culture and found intoxicating souvenir publications .
In the highly illustrated history of Hobart drinking spots by C.J. Dennison ,the Old Bell Inn ,in which Marcus Clarke wrote part of his novel, For the Term of his Natural Life, in one of the rooms, is covered . The building included murals said to have been the work of convict artist, forger and poisoner ,Thomas Wainewright.
There are numerous drawings of pubs by graphic artist Adrian Thomas Fleury whose brother , Jake, born Hobart 1832, painted religious pictures and ornaments and decorated Catholic churches throughout Australia, receiving a decoration from Pope Pius XI .
Popular with seafarers for many years was the English,French and American Hotel which had a reading room which kept newspapers from England,France and the United States, enabling them to catch up on home country news.
The publican at the Cascade Hotel regularly played Father Christmas during the annual Hobart Christmas Parade in the l940s and 50s .
At McLaren's Hotel, the first licensee not only poured grog, he made large nails on the premises , for which there was a big demand.
There is an interesting woodcut of Hobart which appeared in the Australian Sketcher on May 10,1879,drawn by an artist in a hot air balloon.
The Alabama Hotel was named after the USS Alabama which sailed into Hobart.
The surprising and highly entertaining coverage of Tasmanian pubs continues in the above publication by Donald Howatson with coverage of 24 waterholes .
The introduction says for many years the pubs were the only public buildings and were used for a variety of civic functions, such as coronial inquests and public meetings. Sporting contests and matches were held .Several had skittle alleys at the back and publicans also arranged rifle shootings competitions
At the Fox Inn, for example, a shooting match involved 40 geese, 20 ducks and 10 turkeys which were lined up to be shot from 150 yards, at one shilling a shot.
There were two pubs named Adam and Eve, one later changed to Waggon and Horses, bought by ex convict James Horman who had been transported to the colony in 1835 for stealing pigs.
Another publican, Thomas Todd Cooley (1805-1886), had been sentenced to be hanged for stealing silver from a London house and had also been in trouble over the theft of an umbrella ! The sentence was commuted to transportation for life .
It is stated there was" a tale" , a bit dubious, that his pub was invaded by four bushrangers and he fought them single- handledly with his fists.
It was strange to read that a pub which opened in 1856 had been named after Florence Nightingale, the Lady of the Lamp .
In the write up about Thomas Dewhurst Jennings (1824-1890) of the Derwent Hotel , which includes a photograph of him , well dressed, seated, wearing a bowler hat , it points out that the Brisbane Courier in May l884 stated he was the biggest man in Australia , if not the world !!!
He weighed more than 200 kilograms and became a famous Hobart attraction. During visits to New South Wales and Victoria he received much attention and is said to have sent a "Tasmanian Tiger " - now all long extinct- to Sydney for the great hospitality he had received . It does not say whether the Tiger was alive or stuffed and mounted.