The Camden Australia Day celebrations opened with the awards at the Camden Civic Centre where the winners of the Camden Citizen of the Year were announced for 2018. At a national level there has been a debate about the date and the day. What does it mean? When should it be celebrated? Should it be celebrated at all?
The day, the 26th January, is the foundation of the military penal settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the anniversary of the coup d’etat against the Bligh colonial administration popularly known as the Rum Rebellion. By 1804, according to the National Australia Day Council, the day was being referred to as Foundation Day or First Landing Day in the Sydney Gazette. On the 30th anniversary in 1818 Governor Macquarie declared a public holiday. In 1838 the 26th January was celebrated as the Jubilee of the British occupation of New South Wales and the 2nd year of the Sydney Regatta that was held on the day. The annual Sydney Anniversary Regattas started in 1837.
Sydney Anniversary Day Regatta yacht race held on the 26th January in 1889. The day was cause for great celebration for what had been achieved by the colony of Sydney. Many tried to forget the convict origins of the day. (SLNSW)
On the centenary of the First Fleet’s arrival at Sydney Cove in 1888 the day was known as Anniversary Day or Foundation Day and festivities were joined by Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand. In 1915 Australia Day was shifted to the 30th July to assist fundraising for the Red Cross and other patriotic funds after the commencement of the Gallipoli campaign.
Australia Day 1915 was used for fundraising for patriotic funds following the opening of the Gallipoli campaign. In 1916 Australia Day was held on 28 July. Fundraising included street collections, stalls, sports days, concerts and a host of other events. In Camden the Red Cross raised over £600 over a three week period with a host of patriotic activities. (AWM)
It was not until the Australian Bicentennial that all states agreed to celebrate the 26th as Australia Day rather than as a long weekend. At the time Aboriginal Australians renamed Australia Day ‘Invasion Day’ and there has been debate about it ever since.
In 2018 the Camden town centre there was the annual street parade for the Australia Day celebrations with lots of keen participants. The town crier, Steve Wisby, led the enthusiastic crowd in a rendition of the national anthem and then a rejoinder of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, OOyy, OOyy, OOyy. The parade included historical groups, school groups, community groups, a number of local bands, and emergency services.
Australia Day 2018 parade with 73rd Foot Regiment Re-enactment Group passing the enthusiastic crowd at the John Street corner (I Willis)
Australia Day 2018 parade in Argyle Street Camden here showing the FJ Holden Utility driven by society VP John Wrigley accompanied by Julie Wrigley. Car courtesy of Boardman family (I Willis)
Australia Day Parade 2018 in Argyle Street here showing the float of the Camden Show Society with Miss Camden Showgirl 2018, Corinne Fulford, sitting atop the hay bails. The Camden Show is the largest festival in the local area attracting over 30,000 visitors to the town and the Camden Showground. (I Willis)
A large crowd lined Argyle Street to watch the parade organised by the Camden Lions Club and the many community groups and businesses that took part in it.
Australia Day Parade 2018 in Camden here showing the crowd milling about the John Street corner. John Street had a number of stalls and other entertainment. (I Willis)
Early in the day celebrations began with the Camden Australia Day Citizen of the Year. The 2018 Camden Australia Day Citizen of the Year was David Funnell. David has been a local businessman for many years and he is a descendant from one of the original European colonial settler families in the Cowpastures area. He was a councillor on Camden Council (1977-1980, 2004-2012) and a member of a number of community organisations.
The other Camden Australia Day Award winners were:
Community Group of the Year — Everyone Can Dance Charity and Camden Lioness
Club
Community Event of the Year — The Macarthur Lions Australia Day Parade
Young Sportsperson of the Year — Amy and Natalie Sligar
Sportsperson of the Year — Maddison Lewis
Young Citizen of the Year — Lubna Sherieff.
These people are true local identities who all have stories to tell that become part of Camden’s sense of place and contribute to the the development of community identity.
The Camden Museum was open for Australia Day and by the end of the day hundreds of visitors had inspected the museum and its wonderful collection of local artefacts and memoriabilia.
Australia Day 2018. The Camden Museum was open and here are two enthusiastic supporters and volunteers for the museum. They are Frances and Harry Warner. These two larger than life Camden characters have spent their life devoted to the Camden community. They have lived and worked on Camden Park Estate for decades. (I Willis)
The Camden Museum was very busy with hundreds of visitors on Australia Day 2018. Here some visitors are watching a video, while others are inspecting the displays. Visitors came from all age groups and enjoyed the museum collection. (I Willis)
The Camden Historical Society volunteer coordinator reports that there were 644 visitors to the museum on the day made up of adults and children. The visitors were looked after by 10 society volunteers who roamed around the museum making sure that the day went smoothly and did a sterling job answering their many questions.
Fresh air was the order of the day for patients at the newly opened Carrington Centennial Hospital for Convalescents and Incurables at Camden in 1890. The hospital followed the latest methods in medical practice and building architecture from Victorian England based on the writings and approach advocated by Florence Nightingale.
Victorian England hospitals
By the late 19th century Victorian England had over 300 Convalescent hospital. They were one of a variety of specialist hospitals that appeared in Victorian England. They included consumptive hospitals, fever hospitals, ophthalmic hospitals, lying-in hospitals, venereal disease hospitals, orthopaedic hospitals, lunatic asylums, fistula infirmary, invalid asylums, as well as those catering for different groups of people for instance seamen’s hospitals, German hospital, children’s hospitals and others.
British historian Eli Anders states that in England convalescent homes were built as the seaside or in the countryside away from the dirty polluted cities. They were to be places of rest, nourishment and recuperation where there was plenty of fresh and healthy air. Medical practices dictated that fresh air and exercise were the order of the day.
Camden’s fresh country air
The location of Carrington fitted this model. It was located in the picturesque countryside with views over the Nepean River floodplain on a hill to catch lots of fresh country air. Camden was considered a healthy site away from the pollution and evils of industrial Sydney and the increased public health risks of the urban environment and issues with sanitation.
Florence Nightingale Wikimedia
Florence Nightingale
Carrington Hospital was the first major convalescent facility in New South Wales and followed design principles espoused by Florence Nightingale. Historian Eli Anders states that Nightingale wrote in her Notes on Nursing and Notes on Hospitals that she was an advocate for ventilation and proper site selection. She promoted the ‘healthfulness’ of convalescent hospitals in the countryside and on the edge of towns where they took advantage of fresh country air. Similar advantages could be achieved by a seaside location.
Miasma
At the heart of this idea was miasma theory which stated that some diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or Black Death were cause by ‘bad air’. The theory stated that epidemics were due to a miasma started from rotting organic matter. The theory originated from the ancients in places like China, India and Europe and was only displaced by germ theory in the 1880s, which stated that germs caused diseases. Despite this popular culture retained a belief in ‘bad air’ and stated the urban areas had to clean up waste and get rid of bad odours. These ideas had encouraged Florence Nightingale’s activities in the Crimean War where she worked to make hospitals sanitary and fresh smelling. These ideas also had a major influence on Sydney and the outbreak of Black Death (bubonic plague) in 1900 after urban renewal process that followed in suburbs like The Rocks and Millers Point.
William H Paling (Camden Museum)
WH Paling
Convalescent homes were often built by philanthropists and charitable organisations. Carrington Hospital was built by Sydney philanthropist and businessman WH Paling (1825-1895), who immigrated with his family to Sydney in 1853. Paling ran a music business importing pianofortes and sheet music, and was an entertainment promotor and composer during the heyday of the gold rushes. His business success allowed him to pursue his political and philanthropic interests. Paling was an alderman on Petersham Municipal Council and mayor, a member of the Royal Society and a director the Mercantile Mutual Insurance Company. The Australian Dictionary of Biography states
His far-sighted preoccupation with questions of sanitation, health and hospital accommodation culminated in his presentation to the colony on 23 April 1888 of his 450-acre (182 ha) model farm Grasmere at Camden, valued at £20,000, to be used as a hospital for convalescents and incurables; he also donated £10,000 for the erection of suitable buildings. A public committee led by Sir Henry Parkes raised a further £15,000 for equipment and development at the Carrington Convalescent Hospital on the site.
The hospital site was purchased in 1881 from Camden Park by a syndicate of WH Paling, AH McCullock, Benjamin James Jnr and W Stimson containing 5100 acres. It was part of the North Cawdor Farms sale which also included a number of Camden Town blocks. The sale had a number of conditions and was not finalised until 1888. In the meantime Paling developed his Grasmere Estate farms. He established a Deed of Gift in 1888 with Lord Carrington was president of the hospital and chair of the general committees and himself as vice president.
The hospital was named after Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales (1885-1890), who served from on the centenary of the foundation of the colony.
Carrington Convalescent Hospital Illustrated Sydney News 1889
Late Victorian Queen Anne Revival
The 89 bed hospital (49 male, 40 female) was designed by Sydney architect HC Kent and constructed by building contractor P Graham. The NSW State Heritage Inventory states:
It is representative of a late Victorian institutional building and is also representative of hospital building techniques (including setting) of the time. Main building of late Victorian eclectic style is brick on concrete foundations with cement dressings in the super structure and tower.
The main building is considered to be an excellent example of a Late Victorian Queen Anne Revival style. There were also additional buildings which included gardeners cottage, Masonic cottage, morgue, and Grassmere Cottage. There were extensive landscape gardens in a general Victorian layout with a carriage loop and flower bed.
In England convalescent facilities were very good and were better than home life conditions for many poor people. The idea with convalescent hospital were that the patients spent weeks recovering away from their home. Rich people who hired their own doctors to treat them during illness or convalescence. They paid to recuperate in a seaside health resort or travel to a spa centre. Convalescent homes were seen as superior to hospitals because they were different from dreary wards. Supporters advocated their calming and home-like qualities with libraries, games rooms and sitting rooms.
Ventilation and fresh air
The Illustrated Sydney News stated that the Carrington Hospital is located on a hill overlooking Camden to take advantage of ‘fresh air’ with ‘ventilation in the sleeping and living rooms’. The ventilation in the buildings was planned by Sir Alfred Roberts and based on Prince Alfred Hospital. The convalescence patients will be able to ‘sit outside and enjoy the lovely view and balmy health giving air’. The garden had ‘comfortable shady seats, where patients can wander about and rest at will, is of great importance, as also the verandahs where they can obtain exercise in wet weather, and the large sitting or day rooms’. There is the pleasant ‘park-like appearance’ of the countryside around Camden which ‘is very English in its character’. Patients will be able to recuperate for ‘two or three weeks’ rest and proper food that would mean so very much to them just at this stage…They are free to revel in the country scenes and sounds and rest awhile from the bustle of life’.
The Sydney press stated that the aims of the hospital
are, that persons recovering from acute illness may benefit by a short residence in the healthful climate of Camden, and a plentiful use of the farm products from the estate ; and further, that persons suffering from incurable diseases may have their lives prolonged and their sufferings alleviated by the above-named advantages. (Illust Syd News)
NSW Governor at Carrington Hospital Laying Foundation Stone Illustrated Sydney News 1889
Lord Carrington lays foundation stone
The Governor of New South Wales Lord Carrington laid a foundation stone in February 1889 in front of a crowd of over 2000 people. A special train came from Redfern and was met at Camden Railway Station by well over 1000 people. The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River Gazette reported that Camden Station was ‘gaily decorated’ with a string of flags. Lord Carrington arrived by train from Moss Vale and he was met at the home by Sydney dignatories who were members of the management committee and trustees. The report noted that hot and cold running water would be laid on throughout the building.
Carrington Convalescent Hospital opened on 20 August 1890 and the first matron was Miss McGahey who resigned in 1891 to take a position as matron at Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. She was followed by Matron Kerr, then Matron Blanche Bricknell in 1897 who served until 1907.
Annual reports
The 1898 7th annual report in the Camden News stated that the hospital had treated 1153 in the previous 12 months with the annual cost of each bed being £35/8/9d. The meeting discussed the reluctance of patients to contribute the cost of their stay. During the year Sister Elenita Williams had been succeeded by Sister Edith Carpendale. Nurses Bertha Davidson and Eva Thomson had been succeeded by Nurses Lily BanfieId and Theresa Richardson. Mr JR Fairfax and Major JW Macarthur Onslow were elected the management committee by subscribers.
The 1900 annual report in the Camden News stated that the hospital had treated 1040 patients in the previous year with the average number of patients 75. The average patient stay was 28 days at a cost of £2/10/11d. The hospital shut its emergency section when the Camden Cottage Hospital opened during the year and Camden medical officers acted in an honorary capacity.
First major convalescent hospital
Carrington Hospital was the first major convalescent hospital in New South Wales and its surrounding buildings and gardens are list on the Camden Local Environment Plan Heritage Inventory (Item 118). Carrington Hospital is significance in that it is, along with Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital, one of only two remaining functional purpose built late 19th century convalescent hospitals in New South Wales.
Out and about this morning at the Camden Produce Market I spotted something new. It was on a table of free local tourist and lifestyle magazines.
So what caught my eye. A pile of glossy newspapers for the Nepean News.
Cover of the Nepean News Issue 7 December 2017 collected by author from the Camden Produce Market (I&M Willis)
I have never seen them before in this area. More to the point I had never heard of it. But in itself that did not mean much.
So what about the Nepean News. Its presence was remarked on by those milling around the table.
The Macarthur region has several free weekly newspapers that circulate in the area. In 2017 one appeared with two editions and then disappeared.
The Macarthur region local newspapers are subject to digital disruption just like their metro daily competitors. So what is special about the appearance of another local masthead in the area.
Local newspapers are defying the digital onslaught felt by newspaper all over the English speaking world. Hordes of city based metro-dailies have completely disappeared.
This week I visited Goulburn and spoke to the editor of the Goulburn Post and how the tri-weekly masthead is surviving and doing well. Her office is the regional hub for around 10 different regional and local newspapers. The Post is part of the Fairfax Media group.
The appearance of the Nepean News is an interesting addition to the story of local newspapers in the Macarthur area. It is free fortnightly masthead stapled 32 pages of glossy colour in a tabloid format published on Thursdays. The edition at the Camden Produce Market was Issue 215 dated Thursday 7 December 2017.
The Nepean News is an independent published by the Western Sydney News Group which has a stable of three mastheads: Nepean News; Western News; and St Clair and Erskine Park News. The group of newspapers has a considerable footprint across Western Sydney.
The Nepean News is centred on Penrith and is distributed from Luddenham in the south, west to Emu Plains, east to Mt Druitt and north to Castlereagh. The footprint of the Western News is east of the Nepean News and stretches from Vineyard in the north, to Rouse Hill and Seven Hill in the east, in the south to Eastern Creek and in the west to St Marys. The third masthead has a smaller circulation and is centred on St Clair.
The Nepean News boasts that it ‘is not tossed onto your front lawn’. ‘Crisp’ free copies can be obtained from ‘local newsagents, service stations, libraries, council and shopping centres’. The newspaper is supported by a bright and lively website.
Screenshot of Nepean News website with distribution details and staff based at Penrith in the production office (2018)
Nepean News editor Kerrie Davies states on the newspaper’s website that initially she launched the newspaper after being made redundant from another newspaper. That was eight years ago. She is in partnership with Bart Bassett, general manager, and sales manager, Korena Hale.
The Western News is free, was launched about two years ago and published fortnightly on a Friday of 16 pages. The latest edition is Issue 50 for 22 December 2017. The St Clair and Erskine Park News is a free monthly of 16 pages and the latest edition is Issue 28 for December 2017.
The format across all three mastheads is similar with a number of sections: local news; entertainment; history; and sport. Editorial content is shared as is advertising. Advertising is a mix of display full page to small quarter, half page and smaller, with a trades and services section.
The newspapers are community focused with a lively mix of local newsy stories and photos, an entertainment and a history page compiled by the local historical society and a strong presence of local sporting stories.
Screenshot of Nepean News website with history page showing article on Elizabeth Macarthur of Elizabeth Farm at Harris Park (2018)
There are strong connections between the Camden LGA and Penrith going back decades. Many local families have relatives and friends in the Penrith area and some like taking in the shopping and other facilities.
The appearance of the Nepean News makes an interesting addition to the story of local newspapers in the Macarthur region. It will be even more interesting to see if makes another appearance. Keep your eyes open.
Supermarkets are one of the ultimate expressions of modernism. The township of Camden was not isolated from these global forces of consumerism that originated in the USA. The Camden community was bombarded daily with American cultural influences in the form of movies, motor cars, drive-in, motels, TV, and radio. Now consumerism was expressed by the appearance of self-service retailing and the development of the supermarket.
This image of Argyle Street is from 2012 taken at the northern end of the street (I Willis)
Retailing in Camden took its lead from England. At the village level the market stall turned into the high street shop. All goods were kept behind the counter, customers were served by male shop assistants and goods were delivered to the customer’s home.
Shopping in Camden was a rather dull affair by all accounts. The methods of retailing in Camden had changed little from the 19th century.
Camden women fronted up to the counter and handed their list of needs to the male shop assistant who filled the order for her. There were several choices from those owned by the Whitemans, the Cliftons, the Furners and others.
The winds of change were about to descend on the Camden shopping experience. The old fashioned general stores were about to find out what real competition with a global presence meant in a small country town.
This image from 1916 shows retail outlets along the eastern side of Argyle Street from the corner of John Street. The centre shops are located in the Whiteman building. Soldiers in training from the Menangle Army Camp on a forced march passing along Argyle Street Camden 1916 (CIPP)
According to Ann Satterthwaite’s Going Shopping self-service was the industrialisation of retailing along with the chain store. These stores featured cash and carry, no delivery and shelving displaying pre-packaged goods. In the USA there were an array of stores from Niffy Jiffy, Help Selfy, Handy Andy to Clarence Saunders Piggly Wiggly stores in Memphis in 1916 which was a type of cafeteria retailing. Piggly Wiggly was allegedly the first self-serve outlet for groceries. Self-service retailing emerged after the American civil war in response to labour shortages. For others like Edison’s Samaritan Market it was an attempt to make shopping more efficient.
The first time that groceries were sold in Australia using self-service in occurred in Brisbane in 1923. The Brisbane Courier reported that the first exclusive cash and carry grocery store started in Brisbane under the name Brisbane Cash and Carry Store. The proprietor Mr CA Fraser had opened three stores by 1927. The press report maintained that
The system was practically a novelty in Brisbane, but some idea of what success can be obtained through an honest endeavour to give self-service to the public in a courteous and efficient manner can be gauged by [its success].
The news report suggests that lower costs were obtained by the customer paying in cash and thus eliminating store credit. The customer serving ‘herself and so eliminating the necessity of salesman effects further savings’. It was claimed that the three stores served over a half a million people each year and the stores were ‘a model of neatness, cleanliness and efficiency’.
This image of Argyle Street shows 110 Argyle Street with Boardman’s Butchery at the corner of Argyle and John Street in 1973. The buildings are little changed from the 1930s. (LKernohan/CIPP)
The first cash and carry store that opened in Camden occurred in 1933 and was owned by Mr Joe B Roberts at 110 Argyle Street. The Camden News stated that Roberts had obtained the premises that had been previously occupied by Mr Green next door to Mr Fred Boardman’s butchery. The report stated that ‘the shop has been specially fitted for Mr Roberts, who [would] personally conduct the store’. By 1936 Mr Roberts store was adjacent to Mr Green’s Drapery store. His Christmas special was a free beach towel with five purchases from the advertisement in the Camden News.
A promotional advertisement aimed at women for the sale of Colgate Tooth Powder in the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1951 (AWW 12 May 1951)
A recent article on JStor on Sex and the supermarket by researchers Tracey Deutsch and Adam Mack claims that supermarkets were places where gender and sexuality collided for American women. Supermarkets were one of the mid-20th century most important suburban sites for the important weekly ritual of shopping for the modern family. The supermarket was both aspirational and practical. In a weekly ritual the modern housewife could get lost is a sea of idealised dreams created by marketing gurus around an overwhelming splash of colour, perfectly merchanised products and an endless supply of brands that promised to make life easier for modern housewife.
A promotional advertisement in the Camden News on 5 June 1941 for a kerosene refridgerator sold by Clintons Distributing Pty Ltd at Narellan (CN 5 June 1941)
In the USA a parallel development occurred in the kitchen. There was the development of refrigerators, the gas stove and products started to be promoted in cans. As the US economy developed fewer women went into domestic service and wealthier middle class women started going shopping in these new supermarkets.
The design of the supermarket was based on making them feminised spaces based on the latest psychological theories. Sex appeal made its way into shopping. Supermarkets were brighter, more colourful, cleaner, and sexier than the dingy general stores. The new aesthetic meant that these spaces were made to titillate and fascinate women. Supermarkets were clean and efficient with modern fluorescent lighting and carefully selected colours.
One of the earliest feminist authors Betty Friedan wrote about how women were shackled through shopping to their domesticity in 1963 in her book The Feminine Mystique.
Supermarkets are sites where gender roles are re-enforced where women’s sexuality is ‘contained and re-directed’ to consumption.
In 1941 press reports from Los Angeles stated that the hype surrounding the opening of the latest supermarkets ranked with the opening of the latest blockbuster Hollywood movies. The Southern Californian housewife went on the hunt for the latest bargains. The supermarkets operated with huge carparks, large neon signs, with some staying open 24 hours 7 days a week. They traded under names like Bi-Best Market, Sel-Rite Market, The Stop-and-Save, Thriftmart, and Wundermart.
The mad enthusiasm of women at the opening of Woolworths first self-service supermarket at Beverley Hills, NSW, in 1950 (Woolworths)
In the post-war years elf-service retailing gained momentum in the Sydney area. Kings Cross grocer Mr Jack Greathead was the owner of a small self-serve store, and in 1950 cut the price of his butter and triggered a price war. Chain stores joined the price war. Mr FC Burnard the grocery buyer for David Jones predicted after a visit to the USA that self-service and other retailing innovations would soon be implemented in Australia. He was particularly impressed with the use of trolley-carts and pre-packaged hosiery and frozen goods.
This image shows the new Woolworths stand-alone self-serve supermarket at 166-172 Argyle Street. This was Camden’s first self-service supermarket which was built in 1963 (CIPP)
In Camden Woolworths came to town in 1963. Woolworths opened the first stand-alone self-service store with a modern design, that was clean and made shopping more efficient. With modern lighting, wide isles, bright colours and lots of appealing merchandise to choose from with nationally advertised well-known brands. Some of the brands were American re-enforcing the international and cosmopolitan nature of the new shopping experience.
The new Woolworths store at 166-172 Argyle Street Camden was light and airy compared to the local general stores up the road which appeared old-fashioned and stodgy in comparison. The new supermarket encouraged local women to experience the thrill and titillation of going shopping. Slick brand marketing created dreams in the minds of the shoppers. Shoppers were encouraged to immerse themselves in the dream. Shopping became sexy. Shopping stimulated the sense with bright colours, in-store music and excitement of the new experience. Shopping became exciting. Shopping was sensual as much as it was practical.
The Woolworths supermarket consolidated a number of lots in Argyle street that was occupied by W Ward the butcher, Monica Ray and Beaton and Wylie.
This image is of the Camden Coles self-service supermarket in Murray Street Camden. The supermarket was built in 1979. (I Willis, 2018)
The Art Deco Pub is an iconic part of country town Australia and there are some that have survived intact despite the tendency to tear them down.
One of the these pubs is located at Dungog, the Royal Hotel.
The Royal Hotel in Dowling Street Dungog was re-built in an Art Deco style in 1939 by Tooth & Co (I Willis, 2017)
Tucked away in the quiet backwaters of the Upper William’s River Valley Dungog is a sleepy little town with an interesting present and a more interesting past.
The Royal Hotel is the fourth pub on the site and was rebuilt in an Art Deco style in 1939. This hotel has survived the waves of redevelopment that have struck the large urban areas. Luckily urban gentrification has not made it to this part of the world yet.
According to the Dungog Historical Society the first hotel on the site was a single storey timber construction in 1850 built by Alexander Donaldson. This was replaced by a two-storey rendered brick building in a Victorian Georgian style which had a shingle roof and a upper balcony. Initially known as the Durham hotel is was later called the Royal. This building was demolished in 1912 and rebuilt in a Federation style.
The pub is indicative of better times for the town when the dairy industry was in full bloom from the 1890s and city investors saw a future in these rural communities. The town had a small building boom in the 1930s with a number of fine homes built with a new Catholic Church and bank buildings. The construction of the Chichester Dam in the 1920s created a prosperous time for the town.
The Royal Hotel in Dungog NSW was re-built by Tooth & Co Brewers in 1939 (I Willis, 2017)
The six o’clock swill and 6 o’clock closing drove the hotel design. It is typified by an efficient delivery of beer to customers in the shortest possible time. The bar area is tiled and can be hosed out after closing for ease of cleaning.
Six o’clock closing laws encouraged an endemic culture of binge drinking that was only re-enforced by licencing restrictions that were not overturned in New South Wales until the 1960s.
These type of Australian hotels like the Royal differ markedly from their British ancestry which were cosy and family friendly.
The typical Australian hotel, like the Dungog Royal Hotel, is two storeys high with accommodation upstairs and a spacious bar area downstairs.
The stairway to the upstairs accommodation in the Royal Hotel in Dungog NSW with much of its integrity still intact (2017, I Willis)
The Royal Hotel is an imposing structure at 80 Dowling Street, the town’s main commercial street and thoroughfare. The hotel is typified by its clean efficient lines and utilitarian design with the paint-on-glass artwork and branding and advertising. These are an iconic part of the history of commercial design and artwork in Australia.
The Royal has typical rounded Art-Deco curved façade with added decorative elements. The classic influence of modernism. The hotel had a commercial kitchen and a flash dining room to serve the latest in moderne dishes to its country clients.
Tooth & Co had a significant expansion programme in the Interwar period and purchased a number of breweries and hotels. In the Lower Hunter Valley it acquired the Maitland Brewing Company in 1913 and a Newcastle brewery in 1921.
Tooth’s hotels were tied to the brewery to sell only Tooths product. This anti-competitive practice was banned in the 1970s.
Tooth & Co used architects Copeman, Lemont and Keesing to design the hotel, which they also did with many hotels of this period particularly in the Sydney area. The hotel builders were Field and Roach.
The exterior tiled frontage of the Royal Hotel in Dungog NSW displaying advertising of a type that would have typical of 1939 when the hotel was re-built by owners Tooth & Co (I Willis, 2017)
On completion of rebuilding in 1939 the hotel was a two storeyed brick structure with a fully tiled ground floor exterior and an asbestos sheet roof. The architectural style is known as P. & O. Ship Style because of its similarities to ocean liner forms.
In 1939 the Saloon Bar was described as
View of stools in front of a curved linoleum-topped bar faced with rectangular tiles. The room has a linoleum floor, walls partially tiled with square tiles, wall fans and spherical lights hanging from the ceiling. On the counter beneath a shelf light is a cash register and there are advertisements attached to the shelves for Tolley’s Hospital Brandy and for Skee Whiskey.
The public bar area is described as
View of curved linoleum-topped bar faced with rectangular tiles and in the background, the door to the Parlour. The room has a linoleum floor, walls partially tiled with square tiles, a wall clock and spherical lights hanging from the ceiling. On the counter is a cash register and there are a number of advertisements on the walls, including a poster reproduction of a pub painting by R. Weuban.
The exterior tiled facade of the Royal Hotel Dungog NSW and the streamline style of Art Deco design that was representative of the best of Interwar hotels in NSW (I Willis, 2017)
Modern Art Deco style hotel in light brick. Recessed balcony on upper level with high parapet above. Curved and decorative brickwork.
The heritage consultants maintaining that the building is a good example of its style and period.
Painted glass signage that is representative of the Royal Hotel in Dungog NSW in its heyday when it represented the best of Interwar modernism in hotel design and style (IWillis, 2017)
![Camden Museum Aust Day 2018 [2]](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/camden-museum-aust-day-2018-2.jpg?w=663)
![Nepean News Screenshot [2] 2018-01-13 08.39.47](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/nepean-news-screenshot-2-2018-01-13-08-39-47.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[1] 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel1-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[3] 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel3-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[5] 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel5-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[4] 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel4-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[2] 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel2-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
![Dungog Royal Hotel[2] Signage 2017 IWillis](https://camdenhistorynotes.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/dungog-royal-hotel2-signage-2017-iwillis.jpg?w=663)
Camden History Notes 
You must be logged in to post a comment.