Hindmarsh Brewery survives to 1927 but other smaller South Australian breweries fail in 20th Century
Hindmarsh Brewery survived from the late 1850s to 1927 but the Green Dragon Brewery (inset) in South Terrace, Adelaide city, (1901) was one of the small South Australian breweries to stop operating in the early 20th Century.
Images courtesy State Library South Australia
About 25 South Australian breweries were operating in 1900but by 1930 most small entities had stopped operating by 1930, with hotels contracting the two big city brewers, South Australian Brewing and Walkerville Cooperative, to supply their beer.
Smaller breweries survived in the 19th Century when beer when the beer wholesale price was one shilling a gallon and transport was expensive. But poor brewing practices, competition from larger city breweries taking advantage of the expanding rail system, the 1894 act imposing a duty of two pence per imperial gallon and, after federation, brewer’s licences and regulations under the commonwealth government’s Beer Excise Act 1901 pushed more closures in the city, suburbs and country.
Among the 1901 victims was the Green Dragon Brewery, next to the hotel of the same name, on the corner of South Terrace and Pulteney Street – one of 16 breweries started in Adelaide city between 1837 and 1890. Among the passing city parade was the tiny Morphett Street Brewery started by John and Isaiah Reid from their licensed grocery shop in 1859. When John died, Isaiah took on John Harrison as partner but went insolvent. The pale-ale factory was taken over by Fred Fuller & Co who continued until the early 1870s.
One of the longest survivors was Hindmarsh Brewery until 1927. E.J. F. "Fred" Crawford partnered George Tinline in a brewery at Hindmarsh that by 1844 was producing an ale of marketable quality. The brewery was on Lot 83, Manton Street, Hindmarsh, that Crawford leased and later bought from Daniel Cudmore. The site was noted for the safe drinking water extracted from an aquifer, using a pump built by John Ridley and made available to nearby residents.
In 1850, Crawford bought Luther Scammel’s land soon dubbed Brewery Lane (later Kangaroo, then Crawford Lane) for better access from Port Road. In 1861, Crawford bought the brewery founded in 1859 by Watson & Borrers on Hindmarsh Lot 162 in nearby Richards Street and taken over by the brief partnership of Bauer & Coulthard.
Crawford, an avid real estate speculator, went bankrupt and in 1867 escaped from his creditor to Victoria. The property was purchased by Henry Herman Haussen and George Catchlove. The brewery's cellars or “warren” were about 300 yards long and needed no timbering or brickwork in tenacious clay.
After Haussen died in 1870, the brewery was bought by Fredereick Estcourt Bucknall and Frank Botting in 1874. Bucknall, who was Hindmarsh mayor at the time, withdrew when he lost most of his fortune with the Commonwealth Bank of South Australia failure. Botting and his father took over the business. Frank Botting died in 1894, and his father became sole proprietor.
A public company Haussen & Co. Ltd. was started in 1910 to operate the brewery until 1927 when it was absorbed by Walkerville Cooperative Brewing Co at nearby Thebarton.
