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Australian Hotel

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Australian Hotel

The Australian Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 100–104 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The current structure was constructed from 1914 to 1915, and Property NSW owns the property, being added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.

The site is known to have been built upon by the 1820s. As per other ridges of The Rocks, it was likely occupied by the encampment of settlers in the first weeks of the First Fleet's arrival in 1788. Terrace houses occupied the site from the c. 1840s until the construction of the hotel complex in 1914.

The Australian Hotel is one of the oldest continually licensed pubs in Sydney. In 1824 it was licensed to George Morris and referenced in a Sydney Gazette article on 12 August 1824, describing the pub as ″Those noble and extensive premises... are now occupied by George Morris, late of the Greyhound-Inn, Castlereagh Street. Hence forth they will be known by the name of ′The Australian Hotel′″.

Later it was leased to John Murray, situated at 116 Cumberland Street on land contained in the Observatory Hill Resumed Area. In 1907 plans were made to realign Cumberland Street, which included the demolition of the hotel. In 1911, Murray made an application to build a new hotel, to be constructed either by the state government or himself. The corner of Cumberland Street and Gloucester Street was the chosen site.

In 1912, Murray was granted a lease for the new hotel, operative as of 1 January 1913. Before construction, however, the 50-year lease was transferred to Resch's Ltd. The residential buildings on the site were demolished by 1914, and construction of the new hotel completed towards the end of that same year. On 8 May 1914, the Municipal Council approved the construction of a two-storey hotel plus cellar and two shops adjoining (one in Cumberland Street and one in Gloucester Street), the plans having been prepared for and submitted to Council by Resch's Ltd. The structure was two storeys in height with brick walls and an iron roof. A basement, or cellar, was located beneath the split level saloon bar. Two shops were also built on the site, one of which (fronting Cumberland Street) was used as a grocery store.

In 1915, Resch's Ltd sublet the hotel to John Upjohn, who was later convicted of selling adulterated rum. Resch's Ltd merged with Tooth & Co. Ltd in 1931, and the lease was transferred to Tooth and Co. Ltd, with Upjohn remaining licensee until 1939. In 1948, the ground floor was renovated, and in 1955, the hotel was reroofed. Upon the expiration of the 50-year lease in 1963, Tooth & Co. Ltd stayed on as monthly tenants. Under the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority Act of 1968, the hotel and surrounding area came under the Authority's jurisdiction.

There were only minor structural changes to the building and minor changes in the building's use from 1929 to 1974.

In 1991–1992 an extensive program of conservation works was carried out. The Cumberland Street shop was rebuilt within the existing shell after fire damage, using evidence from the Gloucester Street shop. The hotel and Gloucester Street shop required structural and fire safety upgrading, and the hotel's ground floor public rooms were refurbished. The exterior was repainted in the original 1920s colour scheme.

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