Chockerup Inn
{{Short description|Former coaching inn on a mail route in Western Australia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Chockerup Inn
| image=
| location_country = Australia
| coordinates = {{coord|-34.83452|117.74097|format=dms|type:landmark_region:AU-WA|display=inline,title}}
| opened_date = {{#statements:P571}}
| closing_date = 1889
| hotel_managers =
| building_type = Inn, hotel
}}
Chockerup Inn (also known as Chorkerup Inn) was a roadside inn on the mail coach route between Albany and Mount Barker, Western Australia, that was built in 1854 and closed in 1889 when the Great Southern Railway opened.
Establishment
The inn was established as a simple wattle-and-daub hut in 1854, when the mail route between Albany and Perth began running.{{Cite web |last=Geocaching |title=Slow Coach - Chorkerup |url=https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1RC3V |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=www.geocaching.com |language=en-US}} The mail coach was drawn by horses, and Chockerup Inn was the first place to change horses or have a meal after leaving Albany, being a couple of hours journey (around 15 miles) from the port town.{{Cite news |date=1890-06-06 |title=NOTES OF A TRIP-ALBANY TO MARTINUP. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/260669088 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Australian Advertiser}}{{Cite journal |last=Bulbeck |first=Dora |date=1876 |title=The story of Chorkerup Inn |url=https://encore.slwa.wa.gov.au/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1778745 |journal=Albany Writes |volume=11 |pages=78–79 |via=}}
1870s
File:Gates Fremantle Prison executed by sergeant J Nelson.jpg
In the 1870s, Joseph Nelson, one of the Royal Sappers and Miners who had come to Fremantle in 1851 to help build Fremantle Prison and other public works, took over Chockerup Inn.{{Cite web |title=Joseph Nelson I Fremantle Prison Characters |url=https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/history/the-convict-era/characters/joseph-nelson/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=Fremantle Prison |language=en}} He was a blacksmith who had led in the construction of the iron gates at Fremantle Prison in 1855, and it would have been useful to have a blacksmith on the road to help with shoeing horses and repairing coaches and wagons.
1880s
In 1884 James and Emma Gorman took over,{{Cite news |date=1884-03-18 |title=No Title |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233322727 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Albany Mail and King George's Sound Advertiser}} and they ran the inn until it closed in 1889, when the railway opened and travellers stopped passing by Chockerup. The inn thrived in this period, with many visitors, and Emma Gorman provided people with generous meals at any time of day, as reported both in the local newspaper{{Cite news |date=1891-01-12 |title=FROM PERTH TO ALBANY BY THE OLD ROUTE. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/260747732 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Australian Advertiser}} and by visiting dignitaries like the Lady Brassey, a best-selling travel author of the time.{{Cite book |last=Brassey |first=Annie Allnutt |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29778/pg29778-images.html |title=The Last Voyage to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' |date=1889 |place=London |publisher=Longmans Green and Co.|pages=241, 249}} Lord Brassey noted that they gave the horses a feed at Chockerup Inn.{{Cite book |last=Brassey (Earl) |first=T. Alnutt |url=https://archive.org/details/sixteenmonthstr00eargoog |title=Sixteen Months' Travel, 1886–87 |place=London |publisher=Spottiswoode |date=1888 |page=112}}
After closing
After the railway opened in 1889, Chockerup Inn was abandoned due to lack of traffic. By 1928 only a few bricks remained.{{Cite news |date=1928-01-19 |title=By The Way |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70169629 |access-date=2025-01-25 |work=Albany Advertiser}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Authority control|qid=Q131849510}}
Category:Pubs in Western Australia
Category:1854 establishments in Australia