LOCATION:     44-46 Main Street, Hahndorf

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

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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