LOCATION:     44-46 Main Street, Hahndorf

SHR 10510 – 46 Main Street confirmed as a State Heritage Place 24 July 1980

See also '46 Main Street Hahndorf' for more information & photographs.

The Australian Arms hotel was built in 1854 by Gottlieb Andreas Schuetze in the fachwerk style with a steep pitched roof.  In 1863 the licence was transferred to the larger building opposite and renamed the Union Inn (now known as Hahndorf Inn).  This building, which after the hotel relocation, had been a residence for many years and is currently a leather business, has a steeply pitched half-roof, with attic windows.  It is typical of the early German building style used in Hahndorf, being red gum half-timbering, with wattle and daub infill panels.  In the 1960's the owner demolished half of this fachwerk building to widen the driveway to his petrol station.

Refer to Hahndorf Inn for history of the hotel after it was located on the opposite side of the Main Road.

Brief History

Extract from 'Hahndorf - A Journey through the Village and its History', by Anni Luur Fox (2002)

Like its rival, the German Arms, this hotel was first established across the road from its present site.  My small drawing shows the portion of the original fachwerk hotel at No. 44 that escaped demolition after Mr. Walkom became the owner in 1953.  Half of the building was sacrificed to widen the driveway to the petrol station.  Gottlieb Schuetze had bought this allottment on 29 August 1853 from the first Lutheran settler, Samuel Bartsch, a joiner who had moved to Gruenberg in the Barossa Valley.  Schuetze had registered his new hotel as “The Australian Arms” in 1854, a period which coincided with the completion of the Great Eastern Road from Adelaide to Paterson’s, just past the windmill.  After discovery of gold at Echunga in August 1852, the district had been swarming with thirsty gold-diggers as well as the adventurous souls who stopped to refresh themselves in Hahndorf on their way to the rich goldfields of Victoria.  In 1858 Hahndorf’s own minor gold rush also increased its population of miners hoping for a lucky strike. 

A good townsman active in community affairs, Schuetze became chairman of a committee in charge of building the new St. Michael’s Lutheran Church.  Hahndorf’s religious community was well versed in the culture of the grape.  Amongst Pastor Kavel’s list of advice for retaining health during the long voyage to Australia had been to bring sufficient wine or brandy for “a nobbler a day.”  The Zebra had carried one hogshead of wine, 50 bottles of cognac, 105 bottles of port and 25 bottles of bitter brandy.  Hahndorf’s settlers were amongst the first in the colony to cultivate grape vines.  Almost every home had a few vines to make a Hock-like wine which was drunk as if it was tea.  There was no minimum drinking age for spirits until 1863, but children under twelve years could still be served wine or beer in the colony’s hotels until 1880.

The Australian Arms was the birthplace of the Hahndorf Institute on 21 October 1861.  A few days later, the committee accepted Miller Wittwer’s offer of the use of a front room at his new residence opposite his steam mill until money could be raised for a separate Institute building.  The hotel became a regular place for dinner following lectures on learned subjects at the Institute.  These occasions usually finished very late at night requiring patrons to find their way home from the pub by lantern or, if the wine had been particularly good, astride a horse that needed no human hand to guide it in the right direction.

Wishing to transfer his hotel to a single storey building over the road at No. 35, in December 1863, Mr Schuetze sold No. 46 to Friedrich Wilhelm Bremer.  He was a tailor whose habit of sitting cross-legged on the bar while hand-stitching garments must have imprinted itself on the minds of villagers sufficiently well to be handed on in family stories.  His son, Alfred Hieronymous, was born that year.  Alfred became a well-known wheelwright and coachbuilder who lived in the former hotel and operated his business on the site of the current petrol station next door.  From 1869 he shared the workshop with C.W. Haehnel and Co. Australian Photographic Company which advertised “Portraits Taken in any Weather.”  Edmund Diederich worked for this company after he arrived in 1881.  Upon acquiring a studio on wheels, he and his wife and daughter travelled throughout South Australia taking photographs which have provided us with a superb record of late 19th Century life.  They settled back in Hahndorf in a small slab cottage on Tischer Road where I visited his daughter Ida Scharenburg in the 1970’s for permission to use her father’s photographs in my first book.  A section of ceiling had collapsed revealing a wonderful store of glass photographic plates which she kindly allowed me to reproduce.

Alfred Bremer’s sideline was carving wooden horses for merry-go-rounds.  Like his neighbour Carl Bom, he was active in the rifle club and probably enjoyed his friends’ company in Schuetze’s new premises across the road where his father was publican in 1872.  Alfred’s wife Emma (nee Gallasch) gave birth to a son in 1896.  Percy grew up to earn his living as  a painter of horse-drawn carriages.  Having taken lessons from Hans Heysen he later turned his considerable talents to become an artist. .....

Early Ownership 

Information from The Hahndorf Allotments Database compiled by Reg Butler.

Old Lot No.	New Lot No.	Street No.	Street Name
House 35	N.H. 95	44	Main Street

Year Sold	New Owner	Occupation	Owner's Home	Personal
1839	Samuel Bartsch #	joiner	Hahndorf	From Skampe, Brandenburg.
1853	Gottlieb Schuetze *	carpenter	Hahndorf	GRO title.
1855	James Owen	licensed victualler	Kensington
1863	Wilhelm Bremer	tailor	Hahndorf
1889	Johanna Bremer	widow of W Bremer	Hahndorf
1911	Alfred Bremer **	wheelwright	Hahndorf	Son of W & J Bremer.
1949	Percy Bremer	gentleman	Hahndorf	Son of A Bremer.
1963	Roy Walkom %	motor engineer	Hahndorf
Sub-Lot 1 - 44 Main Street, Hahndorf
1969	Laurence Munro	driver	Hahndorf
1974	Norman Crittenden	garage proprietor	Hahndorf
1979	Ernest Cambridge Phyllis Cambridge Mark Cambridge Anne Cambridge	general agent operator general agent secretary	Mt Barker Mt Barker Mt Barker Mt Barker	Wife of E Cambridge. Son of E & P Cambridge. Daughter of E & P Cambridge.
Sub-Lot 2 - 44A Main Street / 11 Thiele Grove, Hahndorf
1969	Norman Crittenden	garage proprietor	Hahndorf
1971	Frederick Menz	mechanic	Hahndorf
1975	John Mueller Trevor Mueller	garage proprietor garage proprietor	Hahndorf Hahndorf	Cousins.
1979	Ernest Cambridge Phyllis Cambridge Mark Cambridge Anne Cambridge	general agent operator general agent secretary	Mt Barker Mt Barker Mt Barker Mt Barker	Wife of E Cambridge. Son of E & P Cambridge. Daughter of E & P Cambridge.

Notes:

% R Walkom divided NH 95 into two Sub-lots in 1969.  Filed plan 160 shows the boundary between the main street and Thiele Grove portion of the Lot.

Sub-lot 1  44 Main St; 3609/165 current title

Sub-lot 2  44A Main St;  11 Thiele Grove 4150/404 current title

# S Bartsch had moved to Grünberg in the Barossa Valley before official land transfers began in Hahndorf.

* G Schuetze established the 'Australian Arms' on this site.  It later became a private home only when the hotel business crossed the main street c1863.  W Bremer conducted his tailor business from the house.

** A Bremer established his wheelwright shop on this site, next to his home.

Although Lot NH 95 is on two separate titles, the same owners have possessed the whole piece of land since 1974.

3609/165 current title.

4150/404 Metric title

Old Lot No.	New Lot No.	Street No.	Street Name
House 34	N.H. 94	46	Main Street

Year Sold	New Owner	Occupation	Owner's Home	Personal
1839	Christian Thiele	shoemaker	Hahndorf	From Kay, Brandenburg.
1853	Christian Thiele	farmer	Hahndorf	GRO title. LTO title 1872.
1872	Carl Bom	coachpainter	Hahndorf	Later monumental mason. Died 1911.
1911	Gottlob Jaensch	farmer	Hahndorf	Executor. Son-in-law of C Bom.
1920	Hulda Bom #	spinster	Hahndorf	Daughter of C Bom.
1923	Hulda Ey	wife of Eduard Ey retired - miner	Hahndorf	Nee Bom. Married 1923.
1974	Elders Trustees Eric Paech % Russell Grivell *	business firm farmer Trust officer	Adelaide Hahndorf Hahndorf	Executor. Executor. Executor. H Ey died 1974.
1975	Siegfried Pellenat Edith, his wife Ralph Pellenat	porter home duties soldier	Hahndorf Hahndorf Bandiana Vic	Son of S & E Pellenat.
1982	Paul Church	teacher	Hahndorf

Notes:

• 1960 - NH 94 divided into two Sub-lots:
  • Sub-lot 1:  46 Main Street;  48 Main Street;  50 Main Street - 2431/164 current title
  • Sub-lot 2:  13 Thiele Grove;  15 Thiele Grove - 2431/165 current title
• # H Ey sub-divided NH 94 in 1960
• % Nephew of H Ey, nee Bom.
• * Son-in-law of E Paech.
• 2431/164 current title

Early Publicans 

Australian Arms - Information from Reg Butler

• SCHUETZE, Gottlieb Andreas 1854-1855, 1857-1861
• OWEN, James 1855-1856
• ANDERSON, William 1856-1857
• SCHUNKE, George 1861-1863