Lots of little things today.

Worked through some newspaper accounts of trials in the Supreme Court in 1872 and was able to compile of a “chart” of the procedures. It seems much the same as modern procedures, just varying in the details. Whereas 50 years earlier, the procedure was different. I don’t think I could do the same thing with working out the procedure for then as the reports tended to summarise events not give a blow-by-blow accounting.

Had to go into town to pick up 3 parcels. 3! Parcels are like buses. None for weeks and then they all come at once.

On the bus, did a bit of reading about smaller horse-drawn carriages. It’s starting to make sense. Rather than just a bunch of random names for different sorts of vehicles, I am getting an idea of where the fit into the bigger scheme (and identify them from pictures). Probably somewhere out there there’s a book that explains all this.

Finally worked out the whole timeline for the Wilmot Arms, which is definitely the lead contender for Most Confusing Hotel Timeline Ever. It goes something like this:

Once upon a time where was a hotel along Wellington Rd at the Sandhill called the Green Gate. Sandhill is down to the south, and used to be pretty much at the “entrance” to the town, so a good place to have a hotel, but then the licensing board decided they didn’t want any hotels there and gave the landlord 12 months notice, so he moved to Wellington St, and then changed the name to the Golden Fleece, then moved himself to the Scottish Chief but just before that he got mixed up in a couple of scams and was sent to Norfolk Island. Meanwhile, back at Sandhill, the old Green Gate is relicensed as the Green Gate but then the name is changed to the Wilmot Arms, and then that moves into town to the corner of Brisbane & Wellington St (now Subway) previously the site of the Black Swan, which was one of the first hotels in town (some used to clam it was the first but if so, they forgot to get a license for a couple of years) and here the Wilmot Arms stayed for about 30 years but being an old building the licensing board started to grumble about it being an old building so it was moved around the corner to the site of the old Fire Brigade Hotel (the one opposite the cinema), which became the Wilmot Arms, for seven years until the license changed hands and the new owner changed it to the Fire Brigade Hotel.

Which all sounds nice and straightforward now I’ve worked it out. (So maybe the Courthouse is still ahead. That started as the Kangaroo Inn in Wellington St, moved to the corner, then became the Prince of Wales and moved down the street, and the Dolphin Inn, which was down Wellington St further, moved to the previous site of the Kangaroo and then became the Courthouse. But that was fairly easy to work out, as I knew the first bit, it was just trying to make that fit into a series of blog posts that was confusing, actually same with the Wilmot Arms.)

(Photo: courtroom in the Penitentiary Chapel, which is where the Supreme Court was in 1872.)

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