12 The Press Gallery Printers Fi sh Creek

R [On[ISf ~ISTORY

~ !~~~~~~~~~Gnamed Promontory Gate Hotel at Fish Creek, better known throughout as The Fishy Pub, was built in 1939 to replace a former timber building destroyed by fire in January when Victoria was ablaze with bushfires. Within a week plans were underway for a new building, built by C. Sherlock of Box Hill, for the owner, JF Ryan of Balwyn. Despite a shortage of building materials in a country that was already preparing for war, the hotel was completed and opened in October the same year.

Possibly the fourth hotel on the site since 1893, it has always been the heart of the district, not only quenching thirsts but also as a meeting place for friends and families celebrating birthdays or fund raising for good causes, accommodating commercial travellers and hosting dances for troops stationed at Wilsons Promontory in war time.

Named for the teeming native blackfish, mountain trout and eels that filled the shady creek meandering through the Great Forest of South Gippsland as it was then known, Fish Creek lost the marine life as the trees and scrub were felled to provide rich farmland for the settlers who were leaving the Victorian goldfields along with newcomers eager to take up selections in South Gippsland offered by the government under the 1869 Land Act. Jack J and W Patrick Ryan, two of the five sons of Irish born Patrick Ryan who arrived in Melbourne in 1862, bought their freehold selection, the first in the district, at Fish Creek from their father, when W Patrick established a licensed wayside inn in 1896 together with a store and post office on the site now occupied by the Fishy Pub.

~In 1889 when Andrew O'Keefe was contracted to extend the railway line from Leongatha one of the several camps established for the workers was at Fish Creek which was home for a group of Italian men. Patrick Ryan's hotel near the present primary school was the social centre for the growing settlement. Not only a hotel it combined the post office and general store with a farmhouse.

The original inn was destroyed by fire soon after but the replacement, Wiles Fish Creek Hotel, opened with a full licence granted to the owner Frank Wiles in 1902. Apparently this wa~ also lost in a fire and yet another new hotel stood in its place when the Governor of Victoria, Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, and his wife, touring the state by train, stopped at Fish Creek to officially open the elaborately furnished

building. Mr and Mrs Andy Unger were licensees until 1914 and the licence passed through several hands over the years. The stylish newly built Promontory Gate Hotel was known locally as The White House for

,., .. . many years but this now seems to Pj (. t HfJ

have faded with the memories to become The Fishy Pub in spite of recent attempts to keep the registered name.

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480

Promontor~ 9ate . HOTEL

FISH CREEK -- Now a Nojern Up-to-date Hotel

CONTINUOUS HOT AND COLD W<~,TER SERVICE - SEWERE:D !INDOOR) - - ELECTRIC LIGHT - - EXCELLENT TABLE GOOD FlSHING AND SHOOTING EXCELLE T SU RF

A T WARATAH ~AY

Tours a rranger! I> Wtl~::m's PromJn,.:>ry and other Po •n ts :>f l•1tecest

Apply The Manage r · ?~·ne ; FIS H CREE K 4

~ ~~~~~b~~!~~, The Ensign, records the news of 1939 following the fire which occurred during the third week of January in that year.

January 26, 1939

Plans have been completed for a new hotel to replace the former structure destroyed by fire last week, and an early start on the building is anticipated. The new building, which will cost between £5000 to £6000, will have accommodation for up to thirty and should be a fine acquisition to the town. The owner is Mr JF Ryan of Balwyn, an aforetime prominent Collingwood footballer. Foster and Welshpool recorded temperatures of 112 degrees Fahrenheit during the week.

May 4, 1939

Good progress is being made by contractor, C Sherlock of Box Hill, with the erection of the new hotel, despite delays in the supply of materials.

May 18, 1939

Mr J Ryan has had several offers for the purchase of the Promontory

Gate Hotel which is rapidly approaching completion, but has made no decision on the matter.

October 5 1939

Fish Creek In recent years the town has undergone much improvement, the advancement of late being particularly marked. The completion of the new two­storey brick hotel has been the most notable addition,

~Obviously building regulations and requirements were not what they are today and in a country that was preparing for war which was declared on September 3 of that year, The Promontory Gate Hotel would have provided a cheerful top ic of conversation and speculation as the local district watched the builders' progress.

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The farming families in quiet little South Gippsland towns faced new challenges during war time with the armed forces stationed at Wilsons Promontory which was not only a training camp for commandos but also a home for both navy and air force personnel. The isolation from Melbourne meant that weekend leave was often spent with local families who organised entertainment, dances and film shows in the towns in the halls and the hotels.

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The dining room at the Fish Creek hotel and the local hall became the hub of the community with fortnightly dances and other functions organised by the Red Cross and the Australian Comforts Fund as well as local groups.

Wedding receptions were held in the local halls as they still are, but in

PROMONTORY GATE HOTEL

1945 when Maudi Skinner married Ted Thomson the 60 guests celebrated the occasion at the hotel dining room. Maudi, now a noted local historian, admitted she always wanted to be different but wonders how they all fitted into a room less than half the size of the present room which she describes as 'the hub and cornerstone of the community'. But she remembers the reception was beautiful in every way. Maudi recalled the swamp that is now the carpark in front of the hotel. It seemed to be always full of water that resisted

FISH CREEK

b;cry Comfort and Com·enwrx~ for Guest.; £n Complc-tf'ly M-?d<:rn Building.

iARITF ON 1\.PPt..tCA.':'tON

Neufli Accommod<Uicn to Wilson's Promontory. Wara1a.b Bay and othe-: Popular flqsor:s.

GOO.D llSHfNG. SliOOTtMC AND SO!\J"n(C

R. f '. DRE\'ER~IAN

efforts to be .drained and is obvious in old photos.

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~Margaret Edey was 17 and at boarding school in Melbourne when she came home for the September holidays and found her parents had bought the hotel in 1949. She pleaded with her parents to stay and work for them rather than return to school. It was a good argument and remembers her four years working there with obvious pleasure. The family had their own rooms but Marg recalls the private comfortable lounge room which her mother shared with the regular commercial travellers who stayed there providing home style suppers for the guests who became friends and were treated like family.

Before the days of television, friends shared their evenings relaxing after a busy day or to play cards and board games. Among the regulars was Mr Price who supplied the fuel for the lighthouse at Walkerville escorted by Mr Keane. There were many others whose jobs took them regularly to the Prom and around the coast relying on the local people for transport.

In 1980 the dining room was extended and the interior altered to include the bottle shop which is now at the entrance and a few years later nine motel units were built at the rear of the hotel. These, together with the hotel bedrooms upstairs which now provide backpacker accommodation, are popular with visitors and record a high rate of occupancy.

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l1f8 ~o~~~~~i~~~~Srecords that the licence issued to Donald Ross in 1937 passed to Harry Clydesdale briefly in 1941, followed by Sydney Martin and then to John Carmody 1942, Thomas Smith 1943, Elizabeth Morrison 1944, Leslie Vincent and Phyllis Maguire 1947, Alan Keith Titcher 1948, Lesley Thomas and Louisa May Edey 1949, and Russell Francis Dreverman 1953.

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In 1954 the licence was registered to Promontory Gate Hotel Pty. Ltd. with Maurice James Dunstan the nominee briefly and three months later, Ronald Cheyne Wells was the substitute nominee. He was followed in 1955 by Lionel Harold Teychenne, until 1959 when Thomas Francis and Daphne Isabel Ryan were nominees until 1966 when the nominee for the Promontory Gate Hotel Pty Ltd was Thomas Francis Ryan.

When Mark Sullivan Courtney and Gwenda Courtney took over the hotel in 1981 Thomas Ryan remained nominee until September of that year when the hotel was purchased by Robert Paul and Isabella Anna Carmichael.

Other nominees who followed included Ron and Heather Curtis, Buck Moncur who was the licensee in 1986-87, with his daughter Tina and Sibb Burgraff the manager. Ron Tibballs and his wife, Irene, handed over their management to new owners Andy Farrell and Kim Albert who set new standards for dining during their seven years occupation.

This was followed by a brief decline which rapidly turned around with ownership returning to Andrew Carmichael in partnership with Mark Daldry with Jason Harding the licensee, and managers Will Kranen and his wife Bee. The Carmichael family in recent years has had a long association with the hotels at both at Foster and Fish Creek selling their interest in the Exchange Hotel at Foster early in 2008 after 27 years.

• ~~~T !~~h~~ct has not been positively identified but was possibly Robert Mcintyre who des1gned and remodelled a number of hotels that were built by CUB throughout Victoria and is identified by the original signage. The 20ft. (6.9m) mullet that reclines on the hotel roof is the work of Venus Bay artist, Colin Suggett who was invited to create a sculpture in situ at a Mt

Gambier quarry in 1990. The quarry had been the source of the cutting stone for many years and artists were invited to work to a theme of archeology ignoring one layer of history to reach something deeper. Colin saw his fish as a stunned mullet, something that had been valued but discarded and left to die in an abandoned site, and was pleased with the result. So was Rob Moncur, the hotel owner who visited the exhibition, and happily paid the asking price along with the transport and installation costs. The mullet is built on a steel frame with aluminium, iron and fibre scales.

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~Known not only for its distinctive archectural style and Stunned Mullett sculpture, the hotel hides the secret that it is haunted and claims its own ghost.

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A woman - who is she?- who has appeared frequently from time to time.

The many who have see her over the years give the same description-a tall slim woman wearing her hair in a bun and dressed in the style of around 1900

with a high collared white long sleeved blouse, beneath a grey pinafore with buttoned straps. She comes mostly in the mornings as the staff begin their daily chores to stand silently watching from a kitchen corner.

In very recent years, the apprentice who locked up each night before retiring to one of the upstairs bedrooms and was the only occupant in the building, frequently heard footsteps running along the passageway after he went to bed. And no, he never went to investigate but made sure his door was firmly locked every night.

Grateful thanks are extended to Kim Albert, Rab Best, Gavin Westaway, Robin Grow of Art Deco Society Inc.,

Will Kranen, Marg Smith (nee Edey) for her photographs and stories, Colin Suggett for his fishy tale, Leo Synan,

Maudi Thomson for her memories, Foster & District Historical Society Inc.

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