The Encounter Bay historic pub-crawl
The start of the summer holiday season seems like a good time to publish self-guided pub-crawls for the historic pubs of the three main towns on Encounter Bay: Victor Harbor, Port Elliot and Goolwa. Through the pubs, these address the history of one of the earliest white settlements in South Australia outside of Adelaide. The start of the holiday season also reminds us that Encounter Bay was the first regional mass tourist destination in the State. Its pubs reflect this relatively long and rich history and Encounter Bay's ties to the sea and whaling, the River Murray and trade and to the railway and tourism.
Victor Harbor historic pub-crawl (8MB) |
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Port Elliot historic pub-crawl (10MB) Click on the images to download the guides freely for non-commercial purposes. |
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Goolwa historic pub-crawl (11MB) |
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With a bit of planning the historic pub-crawls can be combined by travelling between Goolwa, Port Elliot and Victor Harbor on the also historic SteamRanger's Cockle Train which runs over the route of the earliest steel-track railway in Australia. In 1854 a horse-drawn railway was built between Goolwa and Port Elliot to transport passengers and freight between the River Murray and Encounter Bay thereby avoiding the un-navigable mouth of the Murray. The line was extended west to Victor Harbor in 1864 and north from Middleton to Strathalbyn in 1869 and from there connected to Adelaide in 1884. The line was progressively converted to steam rail in 1884-85. Except for special and tourist services such as the Cockle Train, the line was closed in 1984. The importance of the railway to the pubs along Encounter Bay, initially for their location and ultimately for their success, cannot be over-estimated.
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The S.G.P.E.&V.H. horse-drawn passenger tram in front of the Young Street entrace to the Railway Hotel, Port Elliot, c.1880 [State Library of South Australia B 59187] |
...and a short note on the Middleton Hotel
Once a regular stop on the railway, Middleton once boasted its own eponymous pub. The ten-roomed Middleton Hotel was built and licensed in 1856, presumably to take advantage of the railway. However, in 1873 it was described as "very slovenly and dirty" and, in 1919, was deemed "totally unfit to be [re-]licensed". It was offered for sale as a boarding house in November 1919 - unsuccessfully it seems, since it was demolished the following year. The current Middleton Tavern, established on a different site in 1991, is unrelated to the old Middleton Hotel.
The Adelaide-Victor Harbor train at the Middleton railway station, c.1910, with possibly the Middleton Hotel in the background at the left [State Library of South Australia B-21127]
Posted 24 November 2021 Original content © Craig Hill 2021