FORMER DEAN’S INN
SUNBURY ROAD, BULLA VIC 3428 - Property No 200
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Statement of Significance
The site is of historical significance as one of the early Gold Rush-era hotels that were built along the main route through Bulla for travellers on coaches and other transports to stop on their way to the goldfields.
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FORMER DEAN’S INN - History
Dean's Hotel was a one storey bluestone building located on the north-eastern corner of the intersection of Sunbury and Wildwood Roads (Symonds 1985: 51). The original owner, William James Dean migrated from New South Wales around the 1840s or the 1850s (Freame 1927: 15). He was the son of a successful hotel-owner, William Dean, who ran the Corporation Inn in NSW during the 1830s (Freame 1927: 15). According to the Bulla Parish plan of 1959, W.J. Dean purchased properties at the east and west ends of Quartz Street in 1862 and 1864 (Figure 10) (‘Sale of Crown lands’, Herald, 27 January 1864: 2).
Dean’s migration to Bulla corresponded with the 1850s Gold Rush, capitalising on the swarms of diggers passing through Bulla on their way to Bendigo (Butler 1966: 6). A history of Bulla by M. Butler suggests that ‘Mr. Dean’ built an inn ‘on the corner of Wildwood Road’ in the early decades of European settlement, but the site was ‘almost demolished’ by 1966 (Butler 1966: 6).
The site was first part of the ‘Bulla Common’, the government reserve of land to the east of the Bulla Bulla township (Allotment 1 shown on Figure 5). The ‘Bulla Common’ was not subdivided until 1873, when the allotments were made available for sale (see the plan of subdivision, Figure 6). A Bulla Bulla County of Bourke map drawn in 1901 shows that a W.J. Dean owned the plot of land (Allotment 22) and the site at the intersection of Wildwood and Sunbury Roads (Figure 9); a 1973 version of the map dates his ownership from 1870 (Figure 11), which conflicts somewhat with the 1873 date of subdivision of the common. Dean may have run the inn earlier under a lease from the government, and then purchased the land when it was made available for sale, and according to Butler (1966: 6) his inn was one of the earliest in Bulla. While it is noted that Dean originally opened the Bulla Hotel ‘in the early days’ it is uncertain whether this was known as ‘Dean’s Hotel’ as different names appear for the site throughout the nineteenth century (Freame 1927: 15). Other iterations include ‘Dean’s Bulla Hotel’, ‘Dean’s Hotel’, and ‘Bean’s Hotel’ (this last one is most likely a typo on the Bulla Bulla County of Bourke Map, see Figure 9).
By the 1880s, Dean’s Hotel was one of four hotels in Bulla including the Bulla Hotel, the Friendly Society’s Hotel, and the Inverness Hotel on the corner of Oakland and Bulla Roads (Symonds 1985: 51). In 1871 Dean applied for a publican's licence for the Inverness Hotel, indicating the expansion of his businesses (‘Advertising’, Argus, 1 December 1871: 8). After collecting several properties in Bulla, Dean became a part of ‘civic life’ in Moonee Ponds, establishing a ‘Dean’s Hotel’ there (Butler 1966: 6). Newspaper articles suggest that there was a Dean’s Hotel established in Moonee Ponds in 1887, and this is perhaps when Dean left Bulla (‘Advertising’, Herald, 14 October 1887: 4). Dean was evidentially a significant landowner in the Bulla district throughout the 19th century, leasing and selling land on Trap Street in 1872 to the dairyman Thomas Emerson (Moloney and Storey 2003: 32). The Dean family is a significant pioneering Bulla family. Dean is reported to have had 26 children, many of whom are buried in a cemetery ground near Bulla. According to a local newspaper article, the ‘Old Dean homestead’ was reportedly across Deep Creek and ‘a few miles from Donnybrook’ in a place that was ‘once a small goldfield’ (Freame 1927: 15; 1930: 2).
The Dean’s Inn at the corner of Bulla/Sunbury Road and Wildwood Road was run as a hotel into the early twentieth century. Travellers, diggers, cyclists, government representatives, and locals congregated as Dean’s Hotel, Bulla throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (‘Advertising’, Age, 10 February 1879: 4; ‘Bulla Bulla’, Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser, 18 November 1893: 3; ‘Australian Cyclist’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 13 October 1893: 4). The ownership changed hands numerous times throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Licence valuations and shire council meetings suggest that after W.J. Dean left Bulla, the hotel was owned by a William Sangster in the early 1880s, transferring the licence to the baker Thomas Eadie in 1887; in 1893 Mr. Duncan owned the hotel, changing hands in 1895 from a Mr. Meyers to a Mr. Fish; in 1900 it was owned by Margaret Theresa Hansen; in 1901 from Mr. D Tuxworth to Mrs. Lucy Mincham, a hotel owner, and in 1905 from J.T (or J.J) Herrick, a hotel broker from Melbourne, to a Mr. Maher, and then to Mrs. E Atkins in 1906 (‘Advertising’, Herald, 14 October 1887: 4 ; ‘Bulla Shire Council’, Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser, 18 November 1893: 3; ‘Bulla’, Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser, 6 April 1895: 2; ‘Sunbury Police Court’, Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser, 13 January 1900: 3; ‘Bulla Shire Council’, Sunbury News, 26 January 1901: 2; ‘Bulla Shire Council’, Sunbury News, 25 March 1905: 2). In 1910, the Sands & McDougall directory notes the owner of Dean’s Hotel, Bulla as Mrs. Herrick (Sands and McDougall’s 1910: 169). In the same year, the Licencing Court sat to establish the number of hotels required in the area and subsequently Dean’s Hotel lost its licence in 1911 (Symonds 1985: 51). It is unclear what the property was used for after this time.
A building is shown in the location of the inn at the south-west corner of the property on the 1916 and 1938 Sunbury maps. In the 1951 aerial photo, the hotel complex is shown still standing and intact at the south-western corner of the property at 200 Sunbury Road (Figure 3); however, the 1968 aerial photo shows that the small buildings have been demolished and that main hotel building at the corner is ruined and no longer has a roof by that time (Figure 4).FORMER DEAN’S INN - Interpretation of Site
The site was first part of the ‘Bulla Common’, the government reserve of land to the east of the Bulla Bulla township (Allotment 1 shown on Figure 5). There is a plan of subdivision of this land dating to 1873 that then shows the Dean’s Inn property as allotment 22 (Figure 6, 1873, Subdivision of Part of Section 1, Parish of Bulla Bulla, County of Bourke, SLV). Dean’s Inn was noted as being one of the many hotels built to service the traffic passing through Bulla during the gold rush, from the mid 1850s (Butler 1966: 6). The likely activities at the site would have been those typical of a mid- to late-19th century inn: selling alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to customers; cooking and serving meals to customers; storage of food and drink; a residence for the hotel proprietor and their family; providing accommodation to paying customers including toilet and bathroom facilities; possibly also the production of beveridges such as ginger beer on site; a stables for horses and wagons for the owners and customers; cessp[its and rubbish disposal in refuse pits (bottle dumps) on the site. A building is shown at the south-west corner of the property, 200 Sunbury Road, on the 1916 and 1938 Sunbury maps. In the 1951 aerial photo the hotel complex is shown still standing and intact, however, the 1968 aerial photo shows that at time, the main building was ruined and no longer had a roof. Since the late 1960s, the property appears to have been used for horse stabling and training. The site was heavily impacted by the works to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Sunbury and Wildwood roads sometime between 1990 and 1996 (Melway Edition 20, 1990, Map 177 D9, does not show a roundabout at this intersection; Melway Edition 24, 1996, Map 177 D9 shows the roundabout at this intersection). However, there is potential for the remains of half of the inn building to be present still within the private property and possible some remains in the road reserve, as well as postholes or footings of outbuildings/stables and cesspits, bottle dumps and refuse pits.
Heritage Inventory Description
FORMER DEAN’S INN - Heritage Inventory Description
The site is the location of the former 1850’s gold rush-era hotel that was known as Dean’s Inn at corner of Sunbury and Wildwood Roads. The original building has been demolished, and the property was clearly adapted for use as horse stables. The location of the former Inn building has undergone some significant ground disturbance at the southwestern corner of the site from the construction of a roundabout and a large drain and drainage pit in the early 1990s. There is a large drainage pit evident in the road reserve. Georeferencing of aerial photos from 1951 and 1968 indicates there is high potential for archaeological remains of at least half of the former inn building and associated outbuildings to be present on the site. Access to the site could not be obtained during the site inspection, but the ground surface was clearly visible from the road reserve. The ground was covered with thick, high grass at the time of inspection. There are low mounds and uneven ground and pieces of bluestone rubble visible in the southwestern part of the property. This suggests that there could be structural features, pits or deposits of the former inn building preserved in the ground.
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