PICTURE: CRAIG'S HOTEL 1887

Craigs Hotel in Lydiard Street, South, occupies the site of the original Bath's hotel.

Thomas Bath was born on the 29th January 1820, near Truro in Cornwall. At age sixteen he became a butcher at Truro and eight years later, in May 1846 he joined H.M. troopship 'Belle Isle' as a sailor. He travelled extensively until 1849 when he left his life at sea, at Geelong.

Returning to his origins he established himself as a butcher, and whilst at Geelong married Johanna Vaughan, where they remained until 1851, then travelling to Hiscock's Gully, Buninyong. He remained only a short time, returned to Geelong and shortly after removed to Ballarat where he again took up butchering. In 1852 he travelled to Fryers Creek diggings, Colac and Bendigo, returning to this district for the opening of the Little Bendigo diggings. On the 24th November he purchased two town lots at the early land sales.

In 1853 he discontinued mining and in May, at great expense he brought from Geelong the building materials for his single storey hotel. It was obviously the pride of the diggings. Early Ballarat historian Withers tells us that at the time Bath built his hotel, which was of weatherboards, (the 'Argus' said that it was made entirely of corrugated iron which gave a pretty effect) all the Government buildings were of canvas, or of slabs with bark roofs. On the 1st July he was granted Ballarat's first hotel licence, which was the first hotel licence on the Victorian Diggings, and established 'The Ballarat' hotel, which was renamed Bath's. In an advertisement in the 'Times', 19th May 1855 the hotel is referred to as the BALLARAT HOTEL Hotel, T. BATH proprietor, however it is also named as 'BATH'S HOTEL' in the public notices. This venture proved very successful and for months he was paying fifteen hundred pounds a week for the cartage of liquor, which at the time was carried at the rate of eighty pounds per ton. The first hotel was a simple structure which was later updated to a double storey weatherboard building complete with tower and clock, the first public clock in the city. The updated version is shown in the 'Star' of March 18th 1857. The two storey building, built of timber cut from the crater on the western slope of Mount Buninyong was commenced at the end of 1853 and the original single storey building was relocated and became a residence at Soldiers Hill, on the corner of Doveton and Macarthur Streets where it remained until 1897. Prior to the granting of his licence the closest legal hotel was at Buninyong. The hotel did an enormous business in the early days, being regarded as one of the leading houses in the Australian Colonies.

The Members of the Eureka Stockade Royal Commission of Enquiry opened their commission at Ballarat at Bath's hotel shortly after the uprising. Years later, on the 16th April 1884 Craigs Hotel was the scene of a meeting to consider to how best erect a permanent monument to mark the site of the Stockade. In 1857 Bath disposed of the property to Walter Craig, moving to his later well known property 'Ceres' at Learmonth. He had come from a farming background and by the early 1860's had sown his property with English grasses, and by the early 1870's had
500 acres under irrigation from Lake Learmonth. The sale advertisement for the hotel was not backward with its descriptions which included ' ... the most valuable property on Ballarat, the first established Hotel on the Goldfields of Australia and the most lucrative business of any hotel in the Colony.' The 1858 & 1862 Directories list 'Walter Craig, Bath's Hotel, Lydiard Street.'

A meeting was convened on the 23rd October 1857 at Bath's hotel to consider the propriety of establishing a rifle corps in the district, the origins of the Ballarat Rangers. The Ballarat Horticultural Society was formed in 1859 and on the 11th October met at Bath's hotel. Bath's hotel was one of the early Ballarat buildings lit by gas made from gum leaves and oil, prior to the formation of the Ballarat Gas Company. In 1887 Withers records that Bath himself had been the Honorary Treasurer of the Ballarat Agricultural & Pastoral Society for nearly twenty years.

Walter Craig was born in Lowick, Northumberland, and came to Victoria in 1850. He had worked as a surveyor and was thirty two years of age when he took possession of the hotel. He died aged forty five years on the 17th August 1870 as a result of pneumonia, having suffered for many years from rheumatic gout. It is interesting that Craig had named Thomas Bath as one of the executors of his will. Walter Craig's wife Jane survived him by only thirteen months, dying at age forty three.

The new three storey brick building, which we know today as the main Lydiard Street frontage, ( without the portico ) was designed by C.D. Cuthbert and opened on the 18th June 1862. At this time the timber two storey building formed the northern section of the hotel, on the Bath Lane frontage. In 1890 this was replaced by the present elaborate corner tower and three storey western section. The portico was added in 1901.

In 1867 H.R.H. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, the first member of the Royal Family to visit Ballarat, made this hotel his local headquarters, hence the connotation 'Royal'. Craig's has also hosted the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of York, who later returned with the Duchess before they became King George V and Queen Mary, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. The Prince's Room and its vast furniture still have the atmosphere of the Royal visits.

Craig's hotel was the meeting place of racing, hunting and coursing enthusiasts, these organisations holding their meetings at the hotel. Both Bath and Craig had a common interest in horses and by 1858 Craig was President and Judge of the Ballarat Turf Club, and a breeder of race-horses. The renowned poet Adam Lindsay Gordon ran Craig's Livery Stables in 1867-8.

Because of the various stages of construction the hotel is described in the book 'Inns of Australia' 1952, as being in three wings and storeys, with 64 bedrooms, including those of the Big and Little Tower. The Judges' Room has a wardrobe tall enough for a hanging Judge to dispose of half-a-dozen victims on the spot. The Judges' Sitting Room is pleasantly organised to provide all the creature comfort and privacy desired by the Judiciary in its Circuits.'

With respect to Craigs Royal hotel, 'Ballarat - a Guide to Buildings and Areas 1851-1940' makes the comment that there is no other hotel building in Victoria with a similarly interesting succession of buildings and additions. Craig's still stands the testimony of time, as one of the jewels in Ballarat's most prestigious streetscape - Lydiard Street.