The Woolpack Inn

Rosewood History

In January 1843 a two-horse conveyance between Brisbane and Limestone commenced running twice a week, under the management of Mr. Samuel Owens. Samuel applied for a licence to sell liquor at Old Man’s Waterhole on 18th July 1843 at the Court of Petty Sessions. He sold it from his home/store along with other sundry goods, which was at that time, a slab hut with shingle roof. He was insolvent by November.

In 1844, Samuel Owens built a house of accomodation or wayside inn at Old Man’s Waterhole.

The site in question, which is about 17 miles from Ipswich in the Reputed County of Stanley but outside the 10 mile boundary line round Ipswich – the premises, which were erected under a Building Licence only, are situated on the boundary line between Laidley Plains & the late Government Run of the Rosewood Scrub Station. (Simpson’s Letterbook 1842-1853)

He was granted a license to Retail Fermented and Spirituous Liquors on 29th August 1844.

It is possible that he named the Inn after the Woolpack Inn at High Street, West Maitland, NSW, which was established in 1828. Samuel was very familiar with this area before he came to the Moreton Bay District.

The Inn’s location was on the road to Drayton. It was built at what was to become the village of Alfred, later renamed Calvert. Samuel Owens owned lots 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Section 13. Lot 8 (site of the Inn) would be described today as being on the corner of Newcastle Street and Gipps Street, Calvert (43-47 Gipps Street, Calvert, Queensland).

The house was built of slabs, with weather-board front; in first-rate order, and contained three sitting-rooms, three bedrooms, a large bar, with a verandah in front. There was also a capacious store, likewise built of slabs, with a loft above and other improvements in the rear, a stockyard, and a garden, fenced in with a paling fence. (Darling Downs Gazette 1859)

In April 1857, Kelly Joseph M’Keon, a carpenter, was granted a license for Woolpack Inn.

In April 1859, widowed Sally Owens sold the property to Kelly McKeon and he changed the name to the Alfred Hotel. (The area was surveyed and named Alfred in 1855.) The last time I can find a license being granted for the hotel was in April 1866.

Kelly McKeon died in 1875 and the property was put up for sale in 1879.

In December 1860, Sally Owens remarried to widower Joseph Stubbs (c. 1879-1863), who was also a convict. Joseph went back to the Richmond area on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales after Sally died in 1861, and is buried with his first wife.

Additional information about the Woolpack Inn.

Samuel Owens received a Conditional Pardon on 31st December 1836.

The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature (Sydney, NSW) Saturday, 9 December 1843, page 300

New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW) Tuesday, 12 December 1843, page 1636

New South Wales Government Gazette, Tuesday 14 February 1845 page 131

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The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld.) Saturday 13 March 1847, page 1

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New South Wales, Australia, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1830-1849, 1853-1899

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The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld.) Saturday 14 April 1849, page 2
Edmund Owens, William Doak, and Wm. Adams were charged with a violent assault, committed on a person named M’Neil, at Mr. Samuel Owens’ public-house, on the Downs road. The offence was proved against Owens and Doak to the satisfaction of the magistrates, who expressed their warm disapprobation of the conduct of Mr. Owens in allowing such a disorderly and ruffianly transaction to take place upon his premises. Owens was sentenced to pay a fine of £3, and Doak of £1; Adams was discharged. The acting Clerk of the Bench was directed to bring this case under the consideration of the licensing Justices on Tuesday next.

Mr. Owens next brought a charge of absconding against M’Neil, the prosecutor in the last case. But it appeared that Mr. Owens had engaged M’Neil as a tutor, and therefore the Bench had not jurisdiction under the Hired Servants’ Act.

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The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld.) Saturday 22 October 1853, page 4

This was James Aloysius M’Keon, son of Kelly M’Keon.

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New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW) Friday 13 April 1855, page 1102

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North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser (Ipswich, Qld.), Tuesday 10 March 1857, page 3
BOUND OVER.—-On Tuesday, at the Police Office Mrs Sarah Owens was summoned before the Bench at the instance of Mr. George Mark, and accused of threatening to take away his life and that of his wife the first convenient opportunity. The complainant stated that he went home on Monday evening and found the defendant quarreling with his wife, and that he tried to pacify her, but his interference only made matters worse, and the defendant threatened to take both their lives. Witness then, for the sake of his wife, who had only been confined about seven days previous, gave her into custody, and she was taken to the lock-up. This was not the first time she had given annoyance to the complainants. The Bench ordered the defendant to be over to keep the peace towards the complainants, herself in £10, and sureties in £20 each.

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New South Wales, Australia, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1830-1849, 1853-1899

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The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba Qld) Thursday 28 April 1859, page 2

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The North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser (Ipswich, Qld.) Tuesday, 10 May 1859, page 3
Commercial – Mr. Cockburn reports the sale of four allotments of land in the village of Alfred, and the Woolpack Inn, at £81.

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Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld.), Saturday, 11 February 1865, page 3
Friday, February 10. (Before the Police-Magistrate.)
DETAINING A HORSE. Eugene Power was summoned by Edmund Owens for delaining a horse, his property. Mr. Chubb was for the plaintiff. The defendant called evidence to show that he had puroliased the horse from Michael McKeon, of Alfred, who bought it from John Moran about three years ago, but got no receipt. Moran obtained it from Samuel Owens, who had previously given it to a boy, Robert Marks (since dead). The plaintiff, however, swore distinctly that he bred and branded the horse, and Michael Power said he was present at the branding. He never sold or otherwise parted with he horse. He just saw it in 1862. This statement was not controverted, and the Police Magistrate ordered the defendant to restore the horse to the plaintiff.

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Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld.), Thursday 6 April 1865, page 4
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The Ipswich Observer and West Moreton Advocate (Qld), Thursday 5 June 1879, page 3
For Private Sale on Easy Terms BY E. BOSTOCK, Brisbane and East-streets.
The LAND containing the well-known M’KEON’s old Hotel, Alfred, Western Creek.

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Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Qld.) Wednesday, 20 February 1884, page 2
The business at the Police Court since last issue has consisted in summarily dealing with disorderly persons. On Saturday Samuel Owens (jnr) was fined 20s. for drunkenness, 40s. for resisting the police, 60s. for using obscene language, and 10s. for assaulting one David Johnston, in default of payment imprisonment extending over a period of three months, two of which, with hard labor, were inflicted for using the bad language.

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Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Thursday 3 November 1887, page 2
Our Ipswich Letter – A rather strange discovery was made by the workmen engaged in excavating the premises lately occupied by Mr. Hugh Campbell, on which are being erected new offices for the Building Society. The fireplace of the old building was being removed; and when a tier of bricks had been withdrawn from its floor, a huge hearthstone was found. This was broken in two and taken out, when it was found to consist of an oblong tombstone of sandstone with the inscription plainly visible, with one exception and read as follows: “The memory of the blessed. In memory of Robert Owens, who departed, this life February 28, 1856, aged 21 years. Deeply regretted by all who knew him.” It is hardly probable that the stone marks the resting place of him whose name is carved on the stone, for interments had by that time ceased in the old cemetery near the Sandy Gallop show grounds. The deceased is believed to be a son of Sally Owens, after whom a plain in the Rosewood Scrub was called.

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Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld.), Saturday 19 December 1903, page 11
PIONEER PASTORAL LIFE. By W. C.
‘Our journey out’ was filled with the usual events of stock travelling, talk, and fun around the camp fires. We passed at Rosewood an old time ‘pub’ called ‘The Old Man’s Waterhole’ kept by old Sally Owens and old Sam. her husband, old celebrities of prison times who regaled bush travellers with rum that was reputed to kill at 40 yards.

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Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 1 September 1923, page 18
Travellers on the Toowoomba line pass a station, the old “Western Creek” where in the fifties lady called Sally Owen kept, a famous pub back near Marburg of today was an open forest space known as Sally Owens Plains where she sent her horses and cattle to graze though there was much better feed outside. A mysterious Hibernian settler also located himself there, and killed fat cattle for himself and Sally Owen, and the carriers. Occasionally he went into Ipswich with innocent looking casks of tallow, in each of which were several small kegs of rum distilled on Sally Owens. Plains. It was great stuff, that Sally Owens “potheen,” and there still are three living Ipswich men who drank that stimulating elixir of barley, and said it was far better than the rum of today. And this is mentioned because that was almost certainly the first illicit still in Queensland, and it was never discovered.