Cabbage Tree Hotel - Site

Statement of Significance

Site - Cabbage Tree Hotel is not considered to have cultural heritage significance. It was included in the 1996 Shire of Collie Municipal Heritage Inventory and the record is being retained for information purposes only.

Physical Description

Historic Site

History

HW Williams (One Day in Collie 1979 p73) records that the Cabbage Tree Hotel was located near Muja ‘at about the 13-mile peg on the Darkan Road’ and had been built for Mr Thomas George Collie. Mr Collie’s daughter, Mrs Marley related that on arrival in the area, her mother was much taken with the Christmas trees in flower which she thought looked like cabbage gone to seed and decided to call the property ‘Cabbage Trees’. Mr Williams writes that this name was also recorded on an earlier map of the area. As the Narrogin railway line was due for construction Mr Collie arranged for the construction of his hotel by Mr Telfer. The hotel was opened on 7 October 1900 on the same day as the Narrogin Line. Robert Henry Caine successfully applied for the transfer of the Cabbage Tree Hotel licence from TG Collie in April 1913. In December of that year it was reported that ‘under instructions from the trustee of Mr TG Collie’s estate, the well-known Cabbage Tree Hotel at Muja, near Collie’ would be sold. The property was leased at an annual rent of £156. The hotel was advertised for auction in The Daily News of 10 December 1913, the Cabbage Tree Hotel ‘situated at Muja, near Collie, together with 100 Acres CP land. The Hotel is a wood and iron building erected about 6 years ago, contains 8 rooms and 3 detached rooms, also dancing hall 32ft x 16ft, only erected last year. It is leased for 5 years at a rental of £3 per week; Lessee paying all rates and taxes and insurances (£500). The Premier Coal Mine, employing 100 to 150 men, is only 4 miles away. Messrs. Buckingham Bros Sawmill, employing 30 to 40 men is only 2 miles distant, and Messrs. Bunning Bros are erecting a sawmill about one mile from the hotel.’ (p10). In July 1918 application for transfer of Wayside House license for Cabbage Tree Hotel from Caine to William Lucas of Muja. Caine is listed as a hotel proprietor in Muja in the 1918 Post Office Directories. There is no newspaper record of the licensee until Ellen Dawson transferred the licence to Herbert Gordon Merritt in November 1927 who was licensee until June 1929 when Arthur Newport Pyke took the licence. That month Merritt advertised that the Cabbage Tree Hotel had been sold. Pyke transferred the licence to George Frederick Jackson White in September 1930. Ellen Dawson transferred the licence to James Dawson in November 1931. At some point the licence was transferred Walter Hines Dawson who, in June 1935 transferred it to Frederick Stephen Benson . Benson held the licence for only a few months transferring it to Stuart Wylie Baillie in December the same year. Baillie applied for a transfer of the licence to William Henry Taylor a short time later, in March 1936. The month before, an advertisement in the West Australian indicates that the hotel had been sold. Only 7 months later, Taylor transferred the licence to Hermann Ferdinand Schultz. Schultz remained as licescee until May 1938 when the licence was transferred to Arthur Youd. In May 1940 Richard Richards handed over the reigns to John Frederick William Everett and then Harry Wicks to William John Watson in July 1942 and to Bridget Theresa McMahon in October 1943. It is believed that the Cabbage Tree Hotel closed during the 1940s, perhaps due to being destroyed by fire in late 1943 . The Cabbage Tree Hotel was named after the Muja or ‘cabbage tree’, more commonly known as the WA Christmas Tree (Nuytisa floribunda).

Integrity/Authenticity

None / None

Condition

None

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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