Did I mention the house across the road used to be a pub?

lake hotel

The Lake Hotel [1851-1891]. That is probably Mr Etheredge standing out front.

The photo is out of copyright. The State Library of Victoria’s website says:

Weatherboard building with gabled corrugated iron roof and verandah, large gas(?) lamp on corner of roof. ‘Lake Hotel’ sign on verandah roof in front of gable, the name C. Etheredge on sign on verandah on side of building. Man standing in front of verandah.

They reckon the original photo was taken in the 1880s, but this is a donated reprint done in the 1940s. Apparently the original wooden bar is still in the front room.

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Line of men standing in front of a tent hotel, one man holding a guitar, mostly in shirtsleeves, hats, beards, one man in sacking apron, a single woman standing in the middle of the line. Tent behind them with sign ‘Lake Hotel / C. Etheredge’. Fence in foreground. Men possibly gold miners.

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Looking along dirt road towards hotel in left background, dwellings and other buildings behind paling fence, forested hill rising in background. A group of children standing with a man on the road (school group).

I’m glad I went looking for more photos of the Lake Hotel. I haven’t seen these latter ones. They were all donated to the State Library of Victoria in 2008 by a Ms Pam Dewhurst.
Other Stuff

Wet … and The Lake Hotel

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14 thoughts on “Wet … and The Lake Hotel”

  1. You comments made me smile because I like to think that lone woman not only ran but ‘owned’ the hotel. What else would make her important enough to be allowed in the picture with all those men? Do you know, Christine.? ❤ ❤

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    • It was built by Charles and Frederick Etheredge in 1855/56 and Charles ran it on his own after 1860. I would reckon the woman would be Mrs Etheredge.

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    • The house is always in my ‘birds on the front fence’ photos, and it suddenly occurred to me I’d never mentioned what it used to be – at least, not recently. Thanks for dropping by Barbara.

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  3. sue says:

    And it looks as though they were standing where you took the photo to take theirs. Wouldn’t it be great if the horse trough was still there. I suppose it is heritage listed?

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    • I don’t know if it’s listed, Sue. I do know that when someone wanted to start up a cellar door/art gallery there, they couldn’t get the permission to make the changes they wanted to satisfy the health department, so they ditched the idea.

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  4. sue says:

    That’s a shame, it would be a good spot for a gallery or other type of arty/crafty shop I would have thought, must have been the cellar door part that wasn’t approved.

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    • They wanted a restaurant in the house – they had already erected a modern architectural monstrosity in the yard for the cellar door. It had a corrugated iron tank that reflected the sun right into our lounge window late afternoon. We were glad to see all the new stuff leave on the back of the trucks!

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      • sue says:

        Bet they were p….d off. Specially since they had started making changes. Lucky for you. Have you been to see the current owner and shown her the photo’s, she may not know that they exist.

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        • I know her to wave to, that’s about it. Can’t even remeber her name (I’m not very sociable!). She came over one year when I was putting Christmas lights on the roof and told me how much her grandchild or niece had enjoyed them the year before. Now I feel bad I hardly bother with the lights. Oddly enough, that first photo was in the local paper only a week or so ago. You’ve given me something to think about, but I’m sure she would have been told. Do you know, an old bloke knocked on our door one day and told us that part of our house had been moved from Costerfield – a store I think he said. The old Heathcote South general store is joined on one side of our house – and I did run a craft shop from there for a little while on weekends – as a hobby – until our cleaning business got too busy. I sort of let it fizzle out, and now we have been re-zoned as ‘rural living’ and it will cost heaps to get the proper permits.

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  5. It’s rare for an Australian to live across the road from a building old enough (and famous enough) to be searchable in the State archives! What a great experience, Christine! Do the people who live there now care about their house’s history?

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    • It’s amazing how many buildings have been used for pubs at one time or another and it’s even more amazing how many ‘ordinary’ photos the State archives possess. I reckon the lady cares, she has used heritage colours on it and I recently noticed she had replace the upper panels in the main door on the edge with glass. She has a light shaped like that gas lamp in her side garden. She restored the veranda without changing the design. I reckon it would be hard not to care about its history.

      Talking of famous pubs – Mr R’s gt gt grandfather (John McMillan) had Mac’s Hotel built in 1850s – and it is the oldest ‘purpose-built’ pub in Victoria. It’s classified. We’re pretty proud of that. John McMillan’s wife was my cousin, but I think she may have ran off with one of the builders as she later married a carpenter after John’s death. 🙂

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