Kelly's Motor Club Hotel is a landmark in Cranbourne, but it wasn't the first hotel on that site. The original Hotel, called the Mornington Hotel, was opened sometime in the 1850s by Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch
(1) The historian, Niel Gunson, writes that -
Gooch, who held a master's certificate, had signed on the Sacramento (2) as mate in order to reach Australia. Elizabeth Minister whom he married at St Peter's Eastern Hill in 1854 had also been on the Sacramento and both lost all their possessions when it was wrecked near the Heads. Both Gooch and his wife took an active part in the life of the Church of England, Mrs Gooch having been one of Bishop Perry's school teachers in England. (3)
Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch
Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson (Cheshire, 1968)
The actual date of their marriage was September 19, 1853; Thomas was 31 years old and Elizabeth was 28 years old. (4) Elizabeth gave birth to nine children between 1855 and 1867; they are listed here with year of birth and place of registration - Thomas (1855, Western Port ), Alfred (1857, Cranbourne), Susan Ellen (1859, Cranbourne), Arthur (1860, Cranbourne), Charlotte (1861, Cranbourne), Walter Edward (1863, Cranbourne), Harriet Beumont (1864, Cranbourne), Frank Frederick (1865, Cranbourne), Fanny Elizabeth (1867, Berwick). (5) Elizabeth died on September 28, 1900 at 1 McPhail Street, Essendon, aged 75 and Thomas died on November 13, 1902 at 407 Canning Street, North Carlton, aged 80. (6)
Gooch's Mornington Hotel
Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson (Cheshire, 1968)
By then of course, the Goochs had long since left the Mornington Hotel. Thomas became insolvent in January 1866 due to depreciation in property and falling off in business. (7) At some time, the Licence was transferred to James Harris, who in turn transferred the Licence to Isaac Mullin in July 1869. Dr Gunson wrote that Isaac Mullin held the licence until 1872, when he concentrated on store keeping. Harris came back to the Hotel, and after his death in September 1875, his wife Elizabeth, took over the licence. She was still there in 1887. (8)
In the 1890s licensees included Thomas Pearson and Henry Nurse senior and Henry Nurse junior.(9) William Lang took over the freehold and the licence in July 1901 from Henry Nurse; and later licensees in the first decade of the 1900s included J. Lane and Letitia Buchanan. (10)
Around 1911, John Taylor took over the licence of the Mornington Hotel and in December 1911 he applied to have the name changed to the Motor Club Hotel and this was approved at a Licensing Court Hearing held December 14, 1911. (11) This name may have been related to the birth of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria in Tooradin or may have reflected the fact that Cranbourne was a popular destination for early motor car excursions. (12) John Taylor purchased the freehold of the hotel in 1912. (13).
The change of name from the Mornington Hotel to the Motor Club Hotel
Julia O'Brien took over the licence of the Motor Club Hotel in February 1913 and was there until March 1914.
(14) It was then operated by Gertrude and William Kilroy, who I have written about
here. In May 1918, it was reported that William James Taylor had taken over the licence and the lease of the business from Gertrude Kilroy; I presume that William and John Taylor are related. In May 1919, William Taylor applied to transfer the licence to Mrs Sarah Kelly of 214 Williams Road, Hawksburn, however John Taylor is listed in the Cranbourne Shire Rate books as owning the Hotel until the 1921/1922 Rate Year.
(15) This was a short-lived occupancy by Sarah Kelly as by July 1920 John Blencowe was advertising as the proprietor of the Motor Club Hotel.
(16) In April 1922 the licence was transferred from John Blencowe to Arthur Kelly and the 1922/1923 Rate books lists Arthur Kelly as the owner of the building. Members of the Kelly family still operate the Hotel.
(17) I have no information as to whether Sarah Kelly was related to Arthur Kelly.
At the bottom of this list of Hotel Licence transfers is that of John Blencowe to Arthur Kelly,
Arthur Kelly had previously operated the Cranbourne Hotel, which was situated where Greg Clydesdale Square in High Street is now located and which was demolished around the 1970s. It had been established by Robert and Margaret Duff, around 1860. Robert Duff (1827-1861) was the brother of the Reverend Alexander Duff, the first Presbyterian Minister in the area. Margaret, whose maiden name was also Duff, married Cranbourne storekeeper, Edward John Tucker in 1866. (18)
Traditionally, hotel keepers in Australia are seen as being of Irish and Catholic background, but in the 1850s and 1860s in this area it was not unusual to have Protestants operating hotels. By the 1880s there was a movement towards abstinence from alcohol or the Temperance movement with the rise of groups such as the Band of Hope, the Independent Order of Rechabites and the Woman's Christian Temperance. Many Protestant Churches promoted abstinence and as Dr Gunson writes The Gooches, Tuckers and Duffs and Mrs Bowman of the Gippsland Hotel were perhaps the last of their kind to combine Evangelical piety with the publican's profession. (19)
Kelly's Motor Club Hotel, c. 1930s
Image: Cranbourne Shire Historical Society
The existing Motor Club Hotel, was built around 1924, by Arthur Kelly. I am basing this date on the valuation in the Cranbourne Shire Rate Books - in 1923/24 and 1924/25 the Net Annual Value was 240 pounds, in 1925/26, it had leapt to 420 pounds and the next two years it was 400 pounds, so I believe the increase in rates was due to the erection of the new building. As the Local Government year used to run from October 1 to September 30 then the new building would have been erected between October 1924 and September 1925 to appear at the higher valuation in the 1925/26 year. (20) The building is listed on the City of Casey Heritage Database, which describes it as of local historic, social and aesthetic significance to the City of Casey. (21)
Footnotes
(1) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968), p. 65
(2) The Sacramento - wrecked off Point Lonsdale at 3.00am April 27, 1853; it had left London on December 22, 1852. This report from the Geelong Advertiser of April 28, 1853 (see
here) -
Wreck at the Heads - The Barque Sacramento, Holmes, master, from London, with 250 government immigrants, arrived off the Heads yesterday. At about 3 o'clock a.m. the ship struck upon the Point Lonsdale reef, about one mile from shore and four from the lighthouse. The long-boat, life-boat, and two smaller boats were immediately hoisted out, and the landing of the immigrants commenced. Some were taken to the shore and others landed temporarily on the reef. The news was brought to Geelong yesterday afternoon, by the Rev. Mr. Lord, chaplain to the Sacramento. When he left the pilot station yesterday morning at nine, the boats were busily engaged in landing the immigrants, but as a heavy surf was running the process was necessarily slow, and even if the weather remained favourable, it would occupy the greater portion of yesterday to land them all. The condition of some of the poor creatures; crowding into the boats, many of them in their night dresses only, was truly pitiable. From the ship's position she is not likely to be got off; and in the meantime the immigrants' luggage and cargo is in jeopardy; indeed, as the weather has since been very squally, the vessel has most likely already gone to pieces.
(4) St Peter's Eastern Hill, Victoria, Australia Marriages, 1848-1955 on Ancestry.com
(5) Index to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(6) Elizabeth death notice -
The Age, October 1, 1900, see
here; Thomas death notice -
The Argus, November 15, 1902, see
here.
(7)
The Argus, January 10, 1866, see
here.
(8) Licence transfer - Harris to Mullin -
The Argus, July 10, 1869, see
here; Gunson, op. cit., p. 67; James Harris - application for licence
The Argus, June 11, 1872, see
here; James Harris death -
The Australasian, September 11, 1875, see
here; the first reference I can find to Elizabeth holding the licence was in the
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, January 2, 1878, see
here; meeting at Mrs Harris' Hotel -
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 8, 1887, see
here.
(9) Licence transfer - Pearson to Nurse -
The Argus, January 23, 1895, see
here; Henry Nurse snr to Henry Nurse jnr
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, March 4, 1896, see
here(10) Licence transfer - Nurse to Lang
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, July 24, 1901, see
here; Licence transfer - J. Lane to Buchanan -
The Argus, June 19, 1908, see
here.
(11) Name change -
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, December 21, 1911, see
here.
(12) Priestley, Susan
The Crown of the Road: the story of the RACV (McMillan, 1983).
(13) Taylor freehold -
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, January 18, 1912, see
here.
(14) Licence transfer - Taylor to O'Brien -
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, February 20, 1913, see
here; Licence transfer - O'Brien to Kilroy -
The Age, March 7, 1914, see
here.
(16) Licence Transfer - S. Kelly to Blencowe -
The Argus, May 15, 1920, see
here; Blencowe -
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, July 8, 1920, see
here.
(17) Licence transfer - Blencowe to A. Kelly -
The Age, April 27, 1922, see
here. Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books.
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