Royal Mail Hotel

Applying for a licence in 1876 to run the Family Hotel, Mary Ann Maher was not so fortunate, with Constable Hawkes objecting that she was not a fit and proper person, having been twice charged within six months for using obscene language. The application was refused. One has to wonder if this charge and moral code was primarily applied to women in an attempt to, unsuccessfully it would seem, shape and constrain their behaviours. If it was equally applied to men of the day, the justice system would surely have ground to a halt!

Certainly, there were many strong female pioneers living and working on the goldfield. One such was Bridget Cruise, who in a short space of time lost her husband and her hotel in a fire, yet started afresh, borrowing money to build the ‘Blackwood (Family) Hotel.’ Another was water race contractor, Pauline Bonfond, who would brook no nonsense from miners, and could be handy with her shovel when required. Further information on some of Blackwood’s early pioneers is available on the laminated sheets at the Cemetery.

The temperance movement spreads it influence

It wasn’t just foul language that caused Mary Ann Maher to fail in her licence application. From the 1870s, the Temperance movement was in full swing with several organisations active in Blackwood. A group of abstaining residents near the hotel opposed her application.

A notable Temperance crusader, who lectured in Blackwood, was Betsy Harrison Lee. Born in nearby Daylesford, Betsy shuttled back and forth among the houses of relatives after her parents died young. She understood the family violence and neglect caused by alcoholism in mining communities from her own experience. Her lectures, even though mainly attended by women, were presided over by men, likely suspicious of her stated agenda to advance the role of women not only in the home, but also in the Church and State.

Under pressure from the Temperance Movement, the government sought to reduce the number of hotel licences in Victoria, especially on the goldfields, which were in economic decline. A resident lamented the sad state of affairs in Blackwood in the Bacchus Marsh Express of 20 August, 1904:

“Some new well-kept cottages are in evidence at Red Hill, which place, I think – should Blackwood live – will contain yet all the public offices, though like a dromadary’s back but with only one long continuous hump… Blackwood was never so dull as at the present time. A stranger would be inclined to call in the hearse to convey the residents to the cemetery. Yet I am not of that opinion. I have seen, several times during the past half century, Blackwood go down, but revive again.”

The Licences Reduction Board, formed in 1907, had its doubts about that revival; in 1913 they ruled that the returns from business warranted just one licensed hotel for all of Blackwood. The Royal Mail Hotel in Golden Point was one of the hotels to be delicensed.

Sowing the seeds for revival

At this time the licensee, William Byres, died leaving behind his widow Annie and their nine children, eight girls and one boy. Annie Byres received 175 pounds in compensation from the government for the surrender of the licence and from then on ran it, together with her young adult daughters, as the Golden Point Temperance Hotel and Guesthouse. This corner of Golden Point was kept vibrant through the downturn by three generations of Byres women. Annie’s mother-in-law Julia operated a lolly shop and lemonade factory in a lean-to of the Post Office, which stood next to the Royal Mail Hotel. The Post Office was managed by daughter Ethel Byres and her husband. Annie Byres also led the campaign to save the Golden Point Primary School and while this quest ultimately failed, she delayed the school’s removal to Red Hill for more than a decade.

The Temperance Hotel proved popular, hosting local weddings as well as visitors from out of town. Over the Easter weekend in May 1915, the Brunswick Cricket Club was housed at the guesthouse. They singled out “the excellent arrangements that had been made for their comfort by Mrs Byres of the Royal Mail Temperance Hotel.”

Annie Byres would not see the advancement of women in all parts of society, nor the revival of the Blackwood Goldfield; however, thanks to her industry and that of the many other stalwart pioneers who refused to give up on Blackwood, revive again it did!

The Blackwood Town interpretation signs were financed by Blackwood Progress Association Inc.