Robe customs house in South Australia from 1863 kept afloat as maritime museum with National Trust backing
Robe Customs House Museum, opened in 1971, after a struggle to save it from being demolished. Among the first to lead the fight was author and community historian Kathleen Bermingham (top right). Bottom right: The horse stables used by troops sent to Robe by the South Australian government in 1857 in response to the big influx of Chinese gold seekers.
Imges courtesy National Trust of South Australia and State Library of South Australia
Robe Customs House, built in 1863 at the busy South Australian southeast coast port, was at the centre of a struggle a century later over its survival. The customs house was used in that role and as the office of harbour master and receiver of wrecks for the southeast coast as far as the Victorian border.
The customs house was on top of a small sandhill overlooking the sea and encircled by a road called the Royal Circus. Originally, bullock teams pulling drays piled high with wool or wheat would use the road as a turning circle when bringing their goods for export.
For several years, the customs revenue collected at Robe was only second to those at Port Adelaide. A big source of that revenue was an arrivals tax imposed on the thousands of Chinese who arrived in Robe on their way to going overland to the Victorian goldfields. Avoiding a big poll tax being imposed on them in the eastern colonies, they initially went to Port Adelaide. By the late 1860s, ships' American and British captains were becoming familiar with the South Australian coastline and realised that they could sail directly to Robe where the new customs house was ready to enforce the arrivals tax on the Chinese gold seekers.
From a heyday when bullockies and teamsters also unloaded wool valued at more than £1 million, Robe trade had declined steeply, due to rival ports and inland railways being built. By 1888, the South Australian government leased out the custom house as office space for the council's town clerk. The local council finally took ownership of the building in 1934 for £10.
In 1964, the District Council of Robe decided to demolish the customs house and build a modern administration office. Among the first to voice concern was local author and community historian Kathleen Bermingham who took up the fight to save Robe’s natural and built heritage. By the mid 1960s, the council’s building inspector also had ruled many of the town’s historic cottages unfit for human habitation. This included a terraced row of four cottages built by shipping merchant George Ormerod but considered an “eyesore” by the council.
Bermingham found a new ally in 1965 when the derelict Ormerod property was bought by Melliar and Joan Priest from Aldgate in the Adelaide Hills. Joan Priest organised a public meeting to discuss preserving the town’s historical and natural assets to build a thriving tourism industry. The 70 people at the meeting, from Adelaide and across the southeast region, included National Trust branch members from Millicent and Kingston and the state honorary secretary R.J. Shepherd.
National Trust of South Australia state president H.C. Morphett in 1965 offeried the council at least £200 towards restoring the customs house if it was handed over to the trust. This was supported by Millicent branch chairman Dr David Harris, and Kingston branch founding chairman Verne McLaren. The customs house also attracted celebrated Melbourne architect Robyn Boyd. In an opinion piece in The Australian in 1965, he asked: “With empty lots galore and shabby nothing buildings positively begging to be bulldozed over, why are so many developers, public and private, drawn so often like hunters to prey on our oldest and most interesting buildings?”
The fight to save the customs house was finally won when Bill Quinlan-Watson was elected to the Robe council. The National Trust secured a long-term lease of the cuctoms house in 1970, for the nominal annual rent of a dollar, and it launched fundraising to restore the building. Costing $3,500, the work was done by Adelaide contractor Ron Mason, guided guidance of the trust’s honorary architect Stewart Game.
The Robe Customs House Maritime Museum was officially opened during Easter 1971.
