Pubs of Albany: Expect the unexpected at the old Royal George Hotel

Pubs are community hubs where friendships are made, romances start and business deals are brokered. Bad things can happen in places where people gather and drinks flow, but for the most part, these establishments are the keepers of fond memories. The watering holes of Albany are among the oldest in the State. In an ongoing series, the Advertiser explores their colourful history. In part three, we look at Six Degrees. Lightning strikes, idle lumpers, Albany committees and a runaway elephant — more than 120 years of history accompany your pint at Six Degrees. Once known as the Railway Hotel and then the Royal George, if there has been one constant for this pub it might be the unexpected. And it all started with a homestead. Six Degrees was once part of Aberdeen House, the much-loved homestead of Alexander and Catherine Moir. Hailing from Scotland and sailing to the new world of Albany, Mr Moir married Catherine in 1854, and by 1867, after the birth of their fifth child, their new home on Stirling Terrace was built. But with the completion of the Great Southern Railway line in 1889 and a surge in newcomers to Albany, the family opted to lease out their home to Frederick Watts. Making improvements to the front, Mr Watts obtained a liquor licence and transformed the family home into the Railway Hotel. The building’s life as a pub had begun. From its spot on Main Street, the pub served the growing number of people who disembarked from the Great Southern Railway line, but competition was growing. Three new hotels were completed around Albany in the 1890s, with seven pubs operating in the region by 1896. In a crowded marketplace, the Railway Hotel was renamed the Royal George Hotel when a new licensee hopped aboard. It seemed the new name was not enough, and by 1910 a new management team made more additions to the property. In a show of early rivalry, a 1910 advertisement spruiked the newly built facilities over “another house rebuilt” in the White Star Hotel, according to the State Heritage Office. “In its new form, the building is of three storeys with balcony in front and the establishment is replete with all modern improvements including the electric light and a septic tank for disposal of waste,” it reads. “All sanitary work is carried out on the most modern lines. Hot and cold water is provided for and electric lights and bells are throughout ... everything is new and comfortable.” Despite its boasts, the hotel largely remained a lumpers’ pub enjoyed by those working on the coal hulks. Serving as coal storage vessels, coal hulks were ships no longer considered seaworthy. Instead, they were used to store the precious coal cargo that would fuel ship traffic around Australia and the world. Up until 1925 there were often six or seven coal hulks floating off Albany. “Coal hulks were a part of Albany’s maritime life from the 1850s until the end of the coal era,” Memories of Maritime Albany, from the WA Museum, reads. “The hulks had a family living in the officers’ quarters as caretakers and a donkey boiler on deck to raise steam for friction winches ... the quarters of the hulk keeper were magnificent.” Reported to sit in front of the Royal George while waiting on assignment, it is likely the lumpers would have enjoyed the odd cold drink to pass the time. While it served the likes of rough dock hands, the hotel also served the more genteel Albany Week Committee. Featuring dances, singing and moonlight excursions, Albany Week was a seven-day promotion of the town. In one 1904 meeting at the Royal George Hotel, the committee opted to kick festivities up a notch with a brass band, as reported by the Albany Advertiser. “(Mr Robinson) understood Albany Week was originally promoted to advertise the town and he, with a great many others, thought that end had been accomplished,” the Advertiser reported. “What was now wanted, instead of the usual routine business, was means by which to entertain the visitors when they came to the town. “He considered that the best way to entertain visitors would be to arrange a band contest, such as was held in the other States. “Mr AH Richardson thought the idea was a capital one as there was nothing that would draw a larger crowd than a brass band.” In other meetings at the hotel, members planned bowling matches, cricket matches, moonlight excursions and warships in the harbour. And if surprise characterised the people who stayed for a drink, it also defined events that visited Six Degrees. In 1927, a violent brawl broke out in the halls of the Royal George Hotel, with the hotel’s chef attacked by the hotel yardman with a piece of firewood. Before being sentenced to nine months of hard labour, the yardman alleged the chef had thrown hot water over him, while the chef claimed that the attack was unprovoked. In 1929, Wirth’s Circus came to town and one of its attractions, Jumbo the elephant, was tasked with hauling lorry-loads of circus gear. But something must have spooked Jumbo. The elephant bolted on to Stirling Terrace, towing a circus wagon behind it, and snapped one of the front veranda posts of the Royal George Hotel. And in 1951, the hotel was struck by lightning. “At the height of the storm last Thursday, there was a terrific thunderclap and a vivid flash of lightning over Albany and a cement ball ... ornamenting, the parapet of the Royal George Hotel, was shattered into fragments,” the Advertiser reported in 1951. “A barman who was on duty at the time said that bottles on the shelves were shaken, and he was certain that lightning had struck the hotel.” Almost a century later, Jumbo’s big adventure has been immortalised in the laneway next to the White Star Hotel, and some of the exposed bricks in Six Degrees still carry the fingerprints of the masons who laid them. For Julie De Jong, the architect behind the 2015 renovations of Six Degrees, the venue’s past remained front-of-mind throughout the renovation process. “What we were really conscious of was that the building had had a lot of change and it was OK to continue to let it transform,” she said. “What we decided to do was just an unpeeling, to reveal the layers underneath and to let it have a new life.” Six Degrees owner Anton Davey said history continued to inspire the people behind the business. “We very much respect the history of that whole street and the whole town. Stirling Terrace is a very special street,” he said. “We constantly look back at the old photographs of the old building and we would really like to rebuild the old balcony out the front. “When we designed the building, we brought in Julie De Jong who is a heritage architect, so we came up with ideas and then she kind of said yes or no or we could blend that in or not blend that in. “That’s kind of how we’ve done it. It was always aimed at trying to blend the environment inside with outside, but we also tried to keep that history with it.”