Episode 308 - Murray Street

Murray Street Hobart in the 1800s

The thumbnail image (above) is allegedly the oldest surviving outdoor photograph of Tasmania. Taken in 1849, it shows the Treasury Building and the section of Murray Street between Macquarie and Davey Streets. It’s the beginning of my history walk on Murray Street, Hobart.

What you can see from the photo is that Davey Street stopped at the intersection with Murray Street, the part (of Davey Street) that continues down to the waterfront (outside TMAG) wasn’t built until later. Murray Street did continue on, but I didn’t start there because this bit is way more interesting.

I found death and taxes, church and state, a secret society, torture, murder, tunnels, oh, and a good, stiff drink.

And that’s just the first block, this street is over a kilometre long, who knows what else I’ll find.

That’s the amazing thing about Hobart, we have these old buildings. Many secrets from the past are hiding in plain sight and everything’s interconnected.

Take the building on the corner. This building is home to the oldest surviving law firm in Australia; Butler McIntyre and Butler. They started in 1824.

You might assume that the building dates from back then too, but it’s a fake, built for a Mr George Adams in 1907. I had assumed it was the Tattersalls George Adams, but he died in 1904, so it wasn’t him. (THE George Adams had another home further up Murray Street, which I’ll get to, later in the story) It was a family home, with brick, stone and verandas to look like a colonial building. The law firm only moved here in the 1970s.

The original building here was the Waterloo Inn and the licensee was John Davies, of Davies Brothers, the company behind the Hobarton Mercury Newspaper.

The law firm has the building next door as well. But the building next to that has a dead giveaway as to its history.

The Henry Hunter designed Masonic Hall was built in 1874 by the Freemasons Hall Company, headed by Mr Charles Toby, a close friend of Mr Richard Cleburne who had a warehouse further up Murray Street. Cleburne is one of the names that keeps popping up in the development of Murray Street, but more about him later.

The foundation stone from this building was moved to Sandy Bay Road when the Masons built an even grander hall.

I know my Dad was a Mason and I’m pretty sure his father was too. I found Dad’s Masonic letters amongst his things after he died. It’s often seen as a strange organisation in this day and age, but from what I can see on the web site, it’s just a grown up version of boy scouts for wealthy men, where they do charity work quietly and discretely. I can see how that would have appealed to my Dad, he was always very shy about the charity work and contributions that he made.

I mention the Masons because there are other names on the plaque (which is inside the building and not shown on the video) that are familiar old Hobart names like Coogan, Tapping, Cummins, Mather and Crisp to name a few. It seems the movers and shakers in Hobart society were Masons.

This one opened in 1859, to house the Hobart Savings Bank which was started in 1845 by George Washington Walker, a draper. Not that long ago, the building was converted to a house and red awnings were placed above the windows. This caused a stir with the heritage people and some were removed. Personally, I didn’t mind them, but there certainly are no awnings in the old photos I have.

The inside of this building used to be very grand. I’m trying to get in when its open to the public for Open House Hobart, but I missed out two years in a row.

Next to that on the corner is the Derwent and Tamar building, dating back to 1877. The Derwent and Tamar insurance company started in 1838. I read that there were several other insurance companies around that time, but this one is the only one that survived.

But these buildings are not the first use of this space. It has a much darker past.

It is built on the site of the old Hobart Gaol.

The 1849 photo just shows the wall, but there was a painting photographed by Beattie.

By 1812, the Army moved up to Anglesea Barracks on the hill to keep watch over Hobart, but they also had a presence here at the original Hobart Gaol from 1817-1857.

The colony was male gender heavy. About 1300 females to 11,000 males! Mostly, the females would be wives of Army officers or free settlers, so the message was sent to Britain - ‘send more women’ and that they did. Women were transported for a range of petty offences and trumped up charges.

I included a very brief summary of Mary MacLachlan’s story in the video. I will do a separate video on her because it’s so fascinating and terrible. Her main crime seems to be refusing to name anyone else involved. That happened several times in her life and never worked out well for her.

The women’s part of the Hobart Gaol was called the Female Factory. By 1827 it was in such a poor state, overcrowded and insecure that it was moved to South Hobart. The men’s section of the Hobart Gaol was moved to Campbell Street around 1857.

 Upon arrival, transported women were classified by their crime and behaviour. The A class were assigned out as servants. They could be bought or married off. Many assigned women returned pregnant, this was regarded as entirely the woman’s doing. They gave birth in the factory. Their children were sent to the orphan school.

Justice moved fast in those days. They were tried in the court across the street and imprisoned here. The Hobart Gaol had a gallows that could hang 6 at a time.

I find this is abhorrent, but luckily there’s gallows humour where we get the phrases ‘don’t leave me hanging’ and ‘pull my leg’. If an unskilled executioner left the condemned dangling alive, they hoped their friends would grab their legs and pull down hard, breaking their neck and putting them out of their misery.

The law said that the corpses of murderers were to be displayed in a gibbet, left to rot in an iron cage.

The last man to be gibbeted in the British Empire was John McKey, 5th May 1837. His body was on display just north of Perth, Tasmania, about 450 yards off the main road, at a place now called Gibbet Hill.

Women were executed, but not gibbetted because the female body was considered too obscene for public display, and the surgeons paid handsomely for female cadavers to dissect.

I found this plaque on the street. The story of Mary McLachlan is terrible. 

Mary was transported from Scotland for house breaking, although the loot was deemed too heavy for a woman to carry. She refused to name her accomplice, likely her husband William Sutherland.

She arrived in VDL and was assigned to Scottish settler Charles Ross Nairne, as a domestic servant. Charles Nairne was instrumental in setting up a Presbyterian church.

2 Months later, she was pregnant and 5 months after that she was sent to Hobart on charges of misconduct. Claiming that Charles wife Katherine had not provided proper clothing, Mary denied the charges but also refused to name the man who got her pregnant. Katherine Nairne did not appear in court. There is no real evidence, but Mary is convicted, sent to the Female Factory and categorised as class C (the most dangerous). She is put in solitary confinement on bread and water.

She gives birth in the toilet at the Female Factory, which was the only private space, but the baby died. British women were usually given the benefit of the doubt with a stillborn child. There is no record of medical evidence indicating foul play, the doctor just listed the baby’s death as infanticide.

She is sentenced to death by hanging with her body to be dissected. She is executed 4 days later. She was 26 years old, the first woman executed in Van Diemen’s Land.

Her body was dissected at the hospital. There were spectators. Afterwards some of her remains were likely taken as medical souvenirs and the rest were buried without a service. 

If we cross over to the other side of Murray Street, we find the Government and courts that dished out these punishments.

The area between Macquarie, Elizabeth and Murray streets was the Government district. Government House, the Supreme court, treasury, barracks and all the British establishment was here.

Murray Street was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, after Captain John Murray, Commandant of Hobart Town in 1810. Macquarie went on a naming spree tour of VDL in 1811 and that’s where most of the street names came from.

The Treasury was first envisioned in Macquarie’s 1811 tour, designed by John Lee Archer and opened in 1824. But it really consists of 9 buildings joined together.

The Supreme Court 1824, Police and Convict Offices 1835 all built of red sandstone that came from the Domain Quarry, Public Offices 1840, Supreme Court 1858, Executive Council Offices 1884 built with ‘dark brown’ stone from Risdon Quarry, the ‘rich yellow’ accents on the Executive Council Offices sourced from Roseneath Quarry at Bridgewater, Deeds Building 1894, also of Risdon stone, Public Offices 1914 the sandstone came from Bryn Estyn Quarry at New Norfolk, Agriculture Building 1915 and the HEC sub-station from 1940, both built of concrete.

I love the Treasury Buildings. I’ve been fortunate enough to see inside a few times in my previous career with IT. This time Katrena and I joined a tour group for Open House Hobart.

There’s a court room in the middle and lots of lovely Tasmanian timber and sandstone. It’s housed various State Government departments including Tourism and the Arts.

The Hobart Town Post Office or GPO was located here from 1862, prior to that it operated from this building in Murray Street, although I haven’t been able to find out exactly where in Murray Street;

So I’ve done State, now to Church. Like any community organisation, the VDL Bible Society saw its fair share of controversy. From the location to the design, people love to disagree.

But this is not the first church building, it’s roughly the third.

When Hobart Town was founded in 1804 by David Collins, the Rev Robert (Bobby) Knopwood was there. Knopwood fed the colony and ministered to the people, starting in a bush clearing or maybe a tent. But his first dedicated church building was a wooden shack in the burial ground which is now St David’s Park. In 1811 Governor Thomas Davey obtained permission to build a better church and sometime around 1817 a stone was laid HERE by William Ashton. Strangely enough, Ashton was executed across the road at the gaol for bush ranging not long after.

The church was named in honour of David Collins and dedicated to St David, becoming St David’s Cathedral. The first Bishop was Nixon (photo).

There was more of that controversy over the spire and the building changed a bit over the years. By the 1870’s it was deemed unsuitable and replaced with the building we see today.

The bells are very impressive, even more so up close. They’re so incredibly heavy that the whole tower building has to move with them. It’s an absolute art to play music on them.

Another quirky feature is the stained glass at the east end behind the altar. It depicts St David holding a model of the cathedral.

St David’s was the place for a society wedding. Beattie’s Studio photographed thousands of them over the years. Apart from regular services, the church is also a magnet for tourists.

Hadley's Hotel is among Australia's oldest. Originally The Tasmanian Club, the building was deemed too big and John Webb was asked to run it as a hotel, becoming Webb’s Family Hotel. When Webb died in 1881, The Bank of VDL did a deal with Francis Hadley, who had The Ship Hotel and the bank got the land to build on the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets.

It became Hadley's Orient Hotel, the name "Orient" suggesting a kind of exotic allure and luxury. The Hadley family infused the hotel with its iconic Victorian-era charm.

Hadley’s has intriguing ties. The hotel was owned by the Bank of Van Diemen's Land, which collapsed. George Adams, founder of Tattersall's lottery syndicate, was known to frequent the hotel. In 1893 Hadley’s Hotel was offered as second prize in Tattersalls lottery but withdrawn when the lottery was not fully subscribed. It was offered again in 1895 and again withdrawn.

I think I’ve used the term ‘White Elephant’ at times, but the hotel has survived nearly 200 years.

Hadley's has been an active sponsor of the arts. The hotel has hosted various art exhibitions and events, providing a platform for local and visiting artists alike.

On the corner of Murray and Collins was this building, but it’s long gone.

This art deco gothic fusion dates from 1937, built by the Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society aka T&G, which grew out of The “Independent Order of Rechabites”(IOR), also known as the Sons and Daughters of Rechab from England in 1835. Their first Australian ‘tent’ was in Tasmania in 1843 and then they spread across Australia. Bits were later sold off to HCF health fund.

T&G started in 1876, and from the 1880s they built buildings in 20 places across Australia & NZ. The buildings were landmarks and seen as a bit of a status symbol. Your town had ‘made it’ if you had a T&G building. Only 4 T&G buildings have been pulled down, so they’re maybe still a status symbol

They merged with National Mutual in the 1980s and were bought by AXA in 1990s.

Cleburne House including Beattie’s Studio

Richard Cleburne was an Irish merchant who arrived in Hobart Town in 1821. He had a business in Liverpool Street. In 1832 he brought an action against the collector of customs for seizing eight casks of American tobacco on which no duty had been paid, and had them returned to him as 'the law was found to be deficient'. Seems he was a successful smuggler. By 1833 he had become a local deacon of the Freemasons. He was a director of the Colonial Bank and an active promoter of the Derwent and Tamar Insurance Co. As his business enlarged he moved his warehouse to a capacious new building in Murray Street in 1840. He had 300 acres including Derwent River frontage near Mt Direction. That’s near the Bowen Bridge today. He had Derwent ferries at Risdon. In October 1851 he was elected for Huon to the Legislative Council, where he fought zealously against the continued transportation of convicts. He was also for the separation of Tasmania from New South Wales. His employee and good friend Charles Toby, also a Mason, was part of the Masonic Hall Company that built the Hall further down Murray Street.

At some point, Charles Davis had this building and later John Watt Beattie moved in. Beattie’s Port Arthur Museum was here. The building burned down in 1933, 3 years after Beattie’s death. As soon as the building was rebuilt, Beattie’s Studio moved back in under the ownership of my grandfather Arch Stephenson.

In 1958 Hobart architects, Philp Leighton Floyd & Beattie were engaged to plan the new arcade. Beattie’s Studio moved out for the construction phase, but were early tenants when The arcade opened in July 1962. The studio stayed here until 1993.

Apart from being the entrance to Cat & Fiddle Arcade, today the building houses The Cleburne Studio, a collective of design practices including Architects.

I made an extensive video about the Cat & Fiddle.

The Bank of NSW was here before Centrepoint, they became Westpac

Richardson’s Building

I haven’t been able to find out much about this building. I know it went up in the 1950s and was named after Richardson’s Meats. I did find a nice piece of film footage (from the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office, used with their permission) which I used in the video.

I remember Cinema One from the 1970s that used to be in the basement and the video arcade that accompanied it. I remember they had a club and you got extra free games on your birthday. The cinema started as The Tatler Theatrette in 1955 and was the home of the Hobart Film Society. Tatler had a matching cinema in Launceston.

Bidencopes Lane used to have a hat shop where my Grandmother worked for a time. I have this hat form from that shop.

Polish tailor Joseph Bidencope arrived in Tasmania in 1858. He must have joined the Elizabeth Street tailors and drapers and found great success, because he opened his own business in Murray Street around 1862, becoming the upper class tailor of choice in Hobart. They specialised in military uniforms. Bidencope was a Mason and later appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1902. He died in 1915.

I couldn’t do any sort of history of Murray Street without mentioning the Myer building. That’s another one of those iconic branded buildings a town had to have to be taken seriously. But that wasn’t the first building here by a long shot.

When they excavated the site they found evidence of at least 5 buildings and coins to prove it. Apparently there was a flour mill here too. That makes sense as the Rivulet runs right through here, providing water power for 19th century machinery.

Carr Field House was built by George Carr Clark on this site in 1824. There were numerous merchants on this site in the 1840s.

The Union Club Hotel took over the building and it became Currie's Commercial Hotel in 1873 and in 1890 the Metropolitan Hotel.

The next building on this site was for Johnston & Miller Ltd.

Later Brownell Brothers department store was here in a building dated 1908.

Myer didn’t move in until 1959 and the Myer Christmas window came to Hobart.

There was a terrible fire in 2007 that ripped a hole in Hobart’s heart.

The Coroner’s report is fascinating reading.

This replacement building was started in 2010 but in 2016 excavation works caused a flood when the Hobart Rivulet burst through an underground retaining wall.

Myer is back and there’s a restaurant called Johnston & Miller, a nice nod to the past.

Also subject to fire was the Green Gate Milk Bar on the opposite corner.

Greek immigrant businessman George Haros started this business in 1936. His brother in law was Anthony Casimaty. The Casimaty family had a restaurant called the Britannia where George worked before he branched out with his own milk bar.

There was a terrible accident at the Green Gate in 1939 when 17 year old waitress Beryl Eleanor Crisp tipped a pot of boiling water over herself, she later died in hospital from her burns.

Presumably because of this tragedy, George invented the Haros Boiler, a precursor of the modern espresso machine, which heated milk with steam.

Thousands of Haros boilers were sold across the country, with manufacturing only stopping in 2015.

Ron Christie has one at the Hobart Town Tea Rooms in Macquarie street where some of my photos are displayed.

The Green Gate was very popular with generations of teenagers and children as it was one of the first places to sell sugar-coated doughnuts and chocolate-covered ice-creams.

The Haros family ran the Green Gate until they sold the business around the end of the 1970s.

The cafe was destroyed by fire in the mid-1980s.

Dad brought back a gold Dunhill lighter from Hong Kong for Gabriel Haros in 1979.

Same as used by James Bond.

Still highly collectable today.

Gabriel Haros went on to do good things, judging by his Wikipedia page. He was an MHA and now runs Greening The Desert.

Haros Boilers used to be further up Murray Street where Foamland is now.

Les Lees

Known as Les Lees Corner for many years, but the clothing store didn’t start until 1902. Bought by Edward Harry in 2004 and moved down Liverpool Street to where it is now.

Les Lees Building was Burgess Brothers.

It’s getting a facelift again in 2023.

According to Col Dennison, the Tattersalls Hotel started around 1847 as the Bath Arms Inn ‘ Circus and stables, although may have been site of earlier hotel called the Turk’s Head Inn. In 1874 it became Tattersalls Hotel, Stables and Circus, and may have been the birthplace of Ashton’s Circus, but that’s not confirmed. It stabled horses for handsome cabs.

Highfield House

Highfield Hall Family Hotel opened about 1880 as an upmarket hotel, hence the term ‘family’ hotel.

It became Highfield House, home of George Adams. His funeral service started there in 1904. Mainly fancy accommodation. AMP was in there briefly, Ed Department, now privately owned, master builders’’ Dentists etc.

This Ebenezer Chapel at 220 Murray

Was built in 1869 for the united Methodists, it became Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) lodge sometime in the early 20th century, then Nightingale Supply Company and now a private residence.

These Odd Fellows are an interesting bunch, from what I can see they were a bit like the Masons but for working class people. Another fraternity from the golden age of fraternities in the 19th century. Being a gentleman’s club, the ladies were catered for with the associated Rebekahs Assembly.

Like the T&G, the Odd Fellows morphed into IOOF and Insignia Finance. Although the Order still exists.

I did try looking into the history of the churches and secret societies. I saw names like Stephenson, Palfreyman, Beattie, Miller, Coogan, Butler and Mather, but tracing the connection with the modern businesses of the same name is difficult and I’m not sure it gets us anywhere.

Now, I skipped over this, but I think we need that stiff drink I promised you and the Vic Tav as it was known in my drinking days, dates to 1836. All Hobart pubs love to claim that they’re the oldest and the Victoria Tavern’s got some cred in that regard.

Its’ an English pub but the Irish gathered here in 1850 to start a petition for release of Smith Obrien political prisoner.

According to some, there was a tunnel across the road to the Victoria Tavern. I can imagine Knopwood drinking there, but I don’t think he needed a tunnel to do it in secret, he’d have used the front door and dragged the Catholic priest with him. It is very controversial IF these tunnels existed. I got conflicting stories from the different historians that I contacted about this. My cinematographer (Brian) said he has been in the tunnels because he filmed there for a movie years ago. That was under Treasury. But the Treasury people told me the tunnels don’t exist and two other historians agreed emphatically. Maybe they’re legend, maybe they existed. So, when I say “there was this” or “there was that”, please understand the context.

I left these tunnels to last because they’re not just in and out of the pub. There are tunnels all over linking many of these buildings. The Gaol had a tunnel to the courts opposite so the prisoners could be taken to and from court without being seen in public. They appeared out of the floor like magic in the courtroom. The Government employees could move between parliament house and other buildings.

The tunnels don’t appear on the plans and the keepers of the building today are emphatic that no such tunnel existed. Historian the late Peter MacFie (brother of Rob MacFie from Quantum HiFi) wrote about it in his book. Historian Colin Dennison OAM told me that he’s been in the tunnel.

The entrance was allegedly uncovered outside the Derwent and Tamar, when the Council was doing some works.

And I’ve covered the air raid shelters under Franklin Square but there’s allegedly a bomb shelter under Parliament House.

I can’t wait to find out more about the forgotten tunnels of Hobart, but that’s another episode.