PIER HOTEL
| The Pier Hotel, on the NE corner of the main street and the esplanade in Port Germein, was built in 1878 by Samuel Miller, its first licensee. It is said that when he built the hotel he forgot to add stairs and so they were put on the outside of the structure instead, inside stairs being added later. Two hotels in the town were licensed in 1879, both 2 storey substantial stone structures used by the community not only for eating, drinking and accommodation but for inquests, meetings on elections, athletics, football, cricket, horse racing, the agricultural society, jetty construction and extensions, the vigilance committee and auctions. Dinners, farewells, banquets, balls and smoke socials also frequently occurred. "The hotel on the beach is quite a home for those on pleasure bent just at this time of the year. It is a large two-storey building with a commodious balcony. The hotels tended to be named after the current licensee and thus changed popular names frequently. Newspaper reports do not always agree with recorded ownership of the hotels, as almanacs and official documents may not have been up to date with details when printed. The Pier Hotel, so close to the jetty and the goods shed, would obviously have been convenient for sailors and labourers working to load wheat and other goods onto the ships at the end of the jetty, but it was only a block distance from the town's more central hotel. George Kellogg, an ostler at Fergusson's Pier Hotel in 1882, gave evidence in a court case, his occupation showing that there was stable accommodation available for the horses of travellers at the hotel. In January the same year every spare room in both hotels was occupied by visitors for the holidays and it seemed that Port Germein had become a "fashionable and popular watering place." When John Fergusson, the second licensee, left on account of ill-health, Samuel Miller returned to Port Germein from Wirrabara in January 1883, first selling off his land, stone house, farm stock including a number of prize horses and first class bullocks. On the departure of a Mr. D. Westwood, a dinner was given for him at Miller's Hotel, and was attended by the main residents of the town and neighbourhood. There was a sumptuous meal set out by Host Miller on this occasion. Meals at the Pier seemed to be more frequently mentioned than at the other town hotel. Like most publicans of the day, Miller struck trouble for selling drink at unlawful hours, as trading hours were very strict and carefully enforced. A flood washed through the town in May 1884, when persistent rain caused the Baroota Creek to overflow. Many residents sheltered at the hotels as they did again in 1887 when a high tide hit the town but stopped just short of the Pier Hotel. Several watercourses were washed out along the esplanade between the Post Office and the main street and this happened again in June 1893 when heavy rain caused the Baroota Creek to overflow. In May 1903 cyclonic winds drove the sea over the esplanade and many buildings including the Pier Hotel were surrounded while others were under water. "Harry Brown, the cheerful young host of the Pier Hotel talks about getting a bathing machine to run excursions along the jetty this summer," reported the Port Pirie paper in September 1891, but we don't know if that actually happened. The Quorn Mercury in May, 1898, reported that, "Extensive Improvements are to be made in the Pier Hotel, Messrs Paetke & Son being the successful tenderers; when completed it will have the appearance of a new hotel, both internally and externally." 1906 was a big year in the history of the hotel. In March there was a fire in one of the bedrooms, extinguished by locals using buckets and hoses before much damage occurred. Not long after, a customer seized a fellow drinker by the throat and pushed him against a wall, threatening to "do for him", leading to a charge of assault and a trial in Port Pirie. When the hotel was auctioned, with other properties in October, as part of the estate of the late Mr. TB Marshall, the money offered did not meet the expectations of the trustees and it was passed in for private sale but was subsequently sold, with adjoining blocks, in another auction in December 1907 for £1,820 to AE Tolley (Albion Everard Tolley was a member of the well-known brewing and wine making Tolley family) of Adelaide. A very favourable story in the newspapers praised both hotels in Port Germein in 1910, calling the accommodation first class and the hosts genial and friendly. Mr Timmens and his family at the Pier were particularly complimented on the comfort and good organisation of the hotel. A new, two storey balcony had been added to the hotel and it had been repainted and repaired. Sadly, Mr Timmens badly broke his ankle in 1911 and the hotel was again up for sale by 1912, but not sold. A gale tore the roof off the stables but in November the hotel was taken over by the Dollard family, from Petersburg (Peterborough). The Petersburg Times (3 Jan, 1913) reported that " The Pier Hotel, which was recently taken over by Mr. M. Dollard (well known in these parts), is almost on the beach, only the road separating it from the sea, and the large airy bedrooms face the blue waters and are very cool and breezy in consequence, in fact one can sit in their room or on the balcony and enjoy the sea air without moving out at all, if they choose to do so. The house is being renovated and is an ideal place to stay at, all the visitors expressing great satisfaction at the able manner in which they were catered for. The Misses Dollard are in charge of the house arrangements and right royally do they attend to their many patrons, and anyone seeking a refreshing holiday cannot do better than to visit Port Germein." Throughout its history there continued stories in the Port Pirie Recorder and North Western Mail of meetings and social events occurring at the Pier Hotel, together with social jottings about people spending their holidays by the sea. A more serious issue concerned a steamer, the Uskmoor, going aground on Ward's Spit in 1914. It was claimed that it happened because they mistook a bright light from the Pier Hotel for the light on the end of the jetty. Fortunately the ship was only stuck for a short time as the bottom was sandy, and the hotel keeper made sure to shade the light so that such an incident did not occur again. 1919 and 1923 saw the hotel making the Port Pirie news again with the licensees, Stephen Simpson and Augusta Fuller charged with supplying liquor out of hours. In 1926, Jack Laver, the current licensee of the Pier applied for permission to erect a verandah at the hotel and also to build a modern kiosk opposite the Pier Hotel. It was to be 30 feet from the jetty and about 50 or 60 feet square. He offered to pay £10 yearly rental for the site for 10 years and the building would then belong to the council when the lease expired. He also applied to erect a Palais de Danse. Amazingly, permission was granted for this plan and soon the Palais de Danse was built although a separate kiosk never seemed to eventuate. A correspondent from “The Observer” at the time noted that the Pier had been transformed from a dilapidated state and was spic and span inside and out. He “thoroughly enjoyed a splendid meal and music from Adelaide over the wireless." The esplanade was lovely and the Palais de Danse was a wooden pavilion above high water mark. Street lights were installed between the hotel and post office in 1928. Mr Laver seemed to be forward thinking and progressive but he was soon gone and although people are mentioned enjoying a luncheon in the spacious dining room in 1929, the hotel was closed for good as a hotel in 1933.  Hotel Building in 2024 |
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| MILLER'S HOTEL | 1879 | 1887 |
| PIER HOTEL | 1887 | 1933 |
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1891
State Library [PRG 373/7E/1/36]
1923
State Library [PRG 1365/1/597]
| Publican Name | Start Date | Finish Date | Hotel |
| Samuel MILLER | 1879 | 1881 | MILLER'S HOTEL |
| John B FERGUSSON | 1881 | 1883 | MILLER'S HOTEL |
| Samuel MILLER | 1883 | 1886 | MILLER'S HOTEL |
| Herbert KEIGHTLEY | 1886 | 1887 | MILLER'S HOTEL |
| Henry Treble BROWN | 1887 | 1890 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mrs Elizabeth AMSBERG | 1890 | 1891 | PIER HOTEL |
| John DAW | 1891 | 1892 | PIER HOTEL |
| Henry James TREW | 1892 | 1896 | PIER HOTEL |
| James D KINNANE | 1896 | 1898 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mrs Mary Annie WHITE | 1898 | 1899 | PIER HOTEL |
| Thomas WHITE | 1899 | 1899 | PIER HOTEL |
| Reginald PIGON | 1899 | 1900 | PIER HOTEL |
| & Elizabeth PINE | 1899 | 1900 | PIER HOTEL |
| Reginald PIGON | 1900 | 1902 | PIER HOTEL |
| Walter BROWN | 1901 | 1903 | PIER HOTEL |
| Henry Percy SENNETT | 1903 | 1904 | PIER HOTEL |
| John Levi CROFT | 1904 | 1905 | PIER HOTEL |
| Lester Horace HOGG | 1905 | 1906 | PIER HOTEL |
| Frank JACKA | 1906 | 1907 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mona KINLEY | 1907 | 1907 | PIER HOTEL |
| Henry William LAMB | 1907 | 1909 | PIER HOTEL |
| Michael John TIMMENS | 1909 | 1913 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mathew DOLLARD | 1913 | 1916 | PIER HOTEL |
| Adolph William HEISE | 1916 | 1919 | PIER HOTEL |
| Stephen James SIMPSON | 1919 | 1920 | PIER HOTEL |
| William A FITZGERALD | 1920 | 1921 | PIER HOTEL |
| Robert F PARTRIDGE | 1921 | 1922 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mrs Augusta FULLER | 1922 | 1925 | PIER HOTEL |
| John LAVER | 1925 | 1925 | PIER HOTEL |
| & Mary E LAVER | 1925 | 1925 | PIER HOTEL |
| John LAVER | 1925 | 1928 | PIER HOTEL |
| Henry FRANKS | 1928 | 1929 | PIER HOTEL |
| Arthur M HABIB | 1929 | 1929 | PIER HOTEL |
| Bertley George TAYLOR | 1929 | 1929 | PIER HOTEL |
| & Mary Catherine TAYLOR | 1929 | 1929 | PIER HOTEL |
| Mrs Thelma EASTWOOD | 1929 | 1930 | PIER HOTEL |
| Arthur M HABIB | 1930 | 1931 | PIER HOTEL |
| Laurence William KENNEDY | 1931 | 1932 | PIER HOTEL |
| Charles Kenneth FAIREY | 1932 | 1933 | PIER HOTEL |