Technology and

Technology and

the late Nineteenth Century

“Any invention that enables a man sitting in his office to ask his bank manager for an overdraft, order a coat from a tailor and send his wife any reasonable excuse for his non-appearance at home at the usual hour deserves a first-class certificate”

Australian Sketcher¹¹⁵

After the social upheaval of the 1850s, the remainder of the nineteenth century was a time of innovation, both in the hotels and in the community in general.

The state had been left with several reminders of that turbulent decade, though. The 1858 Liquor Sales Act had, to some degree, ‘cleaned up’ the seedier side of the hotel industry. Some of the sections of that act make interesting reading today. To be licensed, the public house was assessed on “(XI)...the character or conduct of the applicant, the nature and suitableness of the premises, the locality of the house in respect of which such a license is required and the necessity for a public house in such a locality”. They were also required to have “(XIII)...at least One sitting-room, and Two sleeping-rooms actually ready and fit for public accommodation, Éand if beyond the limits of Hobart Town or Launceston, have stabling accommodation available for at least Four horses”.

Back in New Norfolk at the Bush Inn another woman was the Licensee, a Mrs Mary Anne Mann. Marry Anne was a widow, her husband, Anthony, had died at New Norfolk in 1862¹¹⁶, five years before she took over the hotel.

They operated a brewery at New Norfolk until 1860, when the business was wound up after an insolvency case was proved against them. In the hearing it was found he owed to Ralph Terry of New Norfolk the sum of £29 8s 4d [$58.88] for flour, and £1248 11s [$2497] on Bills of Exchange¹¹⁷. After that they held the License for the Golden Lion in 1861¹¹⁸ and the Bridge Inn in 1864¹¹⁹, both hotels in New Norfolk.

When Joseph Oakley returned as Licensee in 1869¹²⁰ had the hotel until 1872.

Perhaps the most innovative of the publicans at the Bush Inn during this period was Captain Blockey.

Octavious Blockey was the eighth son of John Blockey, of London, England¹²¹. He was educated at Hammersmith and Folkstone, in England. At the age of fourteen he entered a sea faring life, a career that would continue for 17 years, broken only by a visit to the Victorian gold diggings.

He passed his examinations as ‘Master’, and was therefore entitled to use the name “Captain”.

In 1874, on January 12, he married the youngest daughter, Marion, of a Mr Glashier of Tasmania at St Johns, Hobart¹²², and had one son, William Francis in 1875. With a wife and family, it was now time to settle down, so after leaving the Mercantile Service he took up residence in New Norfolk in 1877 where he became the Licensee of the Bush Inn¹²³. Life there must have agreed with the Blockeys, as more children followed, William Frances (1875), Marion Elizabeth (1877), Violet (1879), Minnie (1880), Hilda (1881) and one identified only as “M” In 1882¹²⁴.

It was Captain Octavious Blockey, who perhaps more than any other licensee until that time, capitalised on new technology and marketing practices to keep the hotel a success. He advertised extensively in Walch’s Almanac, Tasmania’s definitive journal of the times, newspapers and in other publications that reached a wide market.

After the visits of the King’s representatives from Governor Arthur onwards, the advertisements for the Bush Hotel carried the wording “Under the patronage of His Excellency the Governor” proudly at the top.

Captain Blockey was a member of the Masonic Order, and the Road Trust. He was largely interested in horticulture, his advertisements often mention the quality and size of the hotels gardens, and at the time employed a staff of six at the hotel.

He also offered guests a variety of services, such as guns, boats, bait and fishing tackle, as well as guides, so that they may enjoy hunting and fishing while staying at the Inn. To satisfy the legal requirement he also sold “Trout Licences” to those who needed them. He had carriages meet the daily steamers from Hobart to transport visitors to and from the hotel, a practice that would be carried forward well into the next century.

It was under his guidance that the hotel became noted as a destination for “day trippers” from Hobart. Though it had always been a popular stopping point for travellers and those who could afford a few days relaxation in the country, it was the advent of regular steamers (steam ship services) on the Derwent that allowed people to make the trip up and back in the one day, and do so in relative style and comfort.

As has been noted, Captain Blockey was not averse to using the media in his favour, so when the Melbourne based Australian Rules Football team, Carlton, made a promotional visit to Tasmania in 1888, the following article appeared in the Tasmanian Mail.

Trip to New Norfolk¹²⁵

Yesterday at the invitation of the Committee of the Southern Tasmanian Football Association the Carlton football team, members of the Southern Clubs , and several friends, had a trip to New Norfolk in the S. S. Tarana. The steamer left the wharf at 9.45 a.m. and arrived at her destination a few minutes before 1 o’clock. A sumptuous repast was laid out at the Bush Inn Hotel. After the inner man had been attended to, the visitors amused themselves in various ways until 3 o’clock, when all again embarked on the vessel and a start was made homewards, the wharf being reached after a very pleasant days outing, a few minutes after 6 o’clock.

In April of 1901, a Mr CM Hickey, the Honorary Secretary of the Fitzroy Football Club also visited the hotel, with 38 members of the team.

Little has changed in over a century, as the football team, like many others in the Victorian Football League at the time, were in Tasmania to not only promote the game of Australian Rules, but to scout for promising footballers to take back to Victoria with them.

Other notable groups would make similar day trips to the Bush Inn in the future, including the touring English cricket team.

But perhaps the most famous of the services Blockey would be able to offer guests, a service taken so much for granted now, was the use of a telephone.

The simple sentence “Telephonic communication with Hobart.” in the 1889 advertisement in Walch’s Almanac merely hints at the role the Bush Inn Hotel played in the telecommunications history in Australia.

Tasmania had always been an Australian leader in communications, even before the advent of the electric telegraph and telephone. In 1816 the Postmaster of Van Diemen’s Land, James Mitchell, negotiated the first direct post from Hobart to England, with the mail bags open at dockside “for the reception of all letters from those who wish to write to their friends in Europe.”¹²⁶ He also oversaw the pioneering of the first overland mail delivery in Australia, from Hobart Town to Launceston. Using convict messengers, a letter cost a shilling [10c], a days wages, to be sent between the two principal towns in the colony.

By 1824 there were post offices established at Hobart, Launceston, George Town, Sorrell, New Norfolk, Macquarie Plains, Hamilton, Bothwell and Green Ponds [Bridgewater]. When the mail service became a government department in 1828, the price for letters dropped dramatically, to a penny [one cent] from Hobart to Launceston, and there were two mails a week between those two points. Convicts were still used to carry the post, and as well as being issued suits consisting of blue jackets, waistcoats, shirt, trousers, shoes, cap and a silk handkerchief, were kept in separate prison wards and permitted to ‘sleep out’ while on the job. It was a position of prestige, the mail carriers were often better dressed and fed than many of the free settlers or soldiers.

Another form of communication was also extensively used in Van Diemen’s Land—the semaphore. Using two arms mounted on a tower, a visual signal could be relayed from Hobart Town to Port Arthur and back in fifteen minutes via the stations at Mount Nelson, Mount Raoul, Eaglehawk Neck and Mount Cunningham. That, of course, depended on the weather...

The coming of the telegraph doomed the semaphore- in 1857 Hobart and Launceston were joined by wire, and by the following year George Town, Low Head and Mount Nelson were connected. But the new technology did not gain universal acceptance. “Since the line of the electric telegraph has been extended to Mount Nelson the whole of the efficient and well understood arrangements previously in existence have been thrown into disorder.” stated The Mercury¹²⁷, adding, “We hate the meddling spirit that cannot let well alone.”

With the first submarine cable joining Tasmania to the mainland in 1859 it looked as though the telegraph was here to stay---until the words: “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.” were transmitted by wire by Professor Alexander Graham Bell on March the tenth 1876.

With those words the telephone had not only been invented, but shown to be a working device.

Just two years later a Campbelltown school teacher, Alfred Biggs, was conducting experiments in Tasmania with home made instruments housed in huon pine cases.

Before long, Robert Henry, the Superintendent of Telegraphs, was pressing for the establishment of government owned telephone exchanges in Hobart and Launceston, and the Hobart Telephone Exchange was established in Macquarie Street in March 1883. It opened to serve ten subscribers.

By 1888 it boasted 208 Subscribers¹²⁸, and was run by a Miss Hall with assistance from a Miss Coote. The Telephone Fitter completed the staff, a Mr T Self. The system at that time worked on an annual subscription, the amount of that subscription depending upon how long the line was from the subscriber to the exchange. For a line of not more than half a mile [0.8 km], this rate was £6 [$12] and for each additional quarter mile [400 m] 15s [$1.50] extra. Non subscribers could use a “public” telephone at the cost of one shilling [ten cents] for ten minutes, plus 6d [five cents] for each five minutes more.

Until 1888 all calls were ‘local’. While there had been several experiments in the long distance use of telephones, in Tasmania and elsewhere, they were not a part of the commercial telephone system.

In December that changed, with the opening of Australia’s first trunk line, when the poles and wires of the telephone joined Hobart to New Norfolk. New Norfolks’ first subscriber was the Bush Inn Hotel, and it carried the telephone number New Norfolk One. It would keep that number until the 1970’s, when the towns telephone service became automated.

It fell to Octavious Blockey to receive the first trunk call in Australia, when, on 1 December, the Hobart Post Office rang the Bush Inn Hotel.

Some months since a number of residents of New Norfolk interviewed the Treasurer with the object of getting that township connected by telephone with the Capital, and after making due inquiries it was decided that the request should be complied with. The necessary instruments were procured, and special hard-drawn copper wire erected for it. This wire is used on account of its superior conductivity, lightness and greater freedom from induction than iron wire. On Saturday last the Exchange was opened at New Norfolk, and there are already sixteen subscribers connected with it. The rates of subscription are the same as in Hobart, but subscribers can be connected with and have the use of the trunk line, thus enabling them to speak directly with the Hobart Exchange by paying an extra £3 [$6] per year. Hobart subscribers may also pay the extra fee to enable them to speak with New Norfolk and vice versa...

Last night the formal opening took place and highly successful results were obtained. Mr R Henry, the Superintendent of Telegraphs was at New Norfolk, and a representative of this office conversed with him from the Hobart Telegraphs Office. The conversation was as clear and distinctive as could be wished, and in short, it was really difficult to imagine that the speakers were 22 miles [35km] apart as there was not the slightest difference in the sound from that Hobart subscribers experience in speaking to each other...

The pressmen asked [Mr Blockey] if there had been any event in New Norfolk worth writing a paragraph about, but Mr Blockey stated that everything there was decidedly slow. We are inclined to think, however, that he will not find many people to agree with him in this, as the very fact of the New Norfolk people getting a telephone Exchange on their township show they are moving with the times...

Blockey’s success with The Bush Inn did not go unnoticed, and it appeared that as well as making friends of many travellers, he also made a few enemies, as illustrated in the advertisement below. Though the full details of who was trying to sabotage the hotels custom may never be known, it seems obvious that someone or some group were attempting to either discredit the business or turn potential customers elsewhere.

The advertisement appeared in the Hobart Mercury on 22 February 1889, and in subsequent editions and advertisements.

NOTICE TO VISITORS

As I am often informed that VISITORS TO HOBART are often told by self-interested people that New Norfolk is a very dull place, and there is nothing to be seen, and other damaging reports, I take the trouble to inform Visitors that such reports are not true. The same people will also tell Visitors that the BUSH INN is full when such is not the case. I would therefore respectfully ask them to apply to me direct for any information required. Letters or telegrams punctually attended to.

O BLOCKEY

PROPRIETOR

A similar report also appears in an advertisement in Walch's Almanac later in 1889, suggesting the problem must have been on-going.

As so often happened with the Bush Inn, the next Licensee, William Cowburn, would have an on-going relationship with the hotel. Except for a short period after the turn of the century, the Cowburn family would be associated with the Bush Inn, and other hotels in New Norfolk, for three generations.