Old Highercombe Hotel Folk Museum: In the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia
If I stood in Haines Park at Tea Tree Gully in the 1850s - where North East Road enters the gully into the hills - I could be forgiven for being a little confused. I'd be standing in the village of Steventon but I'd also be outside the General Store in Tea Tree Gully - and next door is the old Highercombe Hotel! Where am I? The answer is all of the above as the little pioneer outpost had a bit of identity crisis in its early days.
"That's because everybody called it something different," said Carole Simmonds of the Tea Tree Gully Historical Society. "It was originally called Steventon after the old Steventon Estate…"
That name came from John Stevens - an Adelaide miller who took a large land grant in the area which he subdivided. He was on the money too - the local wheat growers needed a spot to shop and it was right at the mouth of the gully that was to become Tea Tree Gully. The hills market gardeners poured through here on their way to town so it was a good place for them to break their journey and water their horses.
First came a rustic shingle covered blacksmiths shop which was followed closely by the steam driven flourmill in 1853. It's been a grainstore and butcher shop in its day too and these days offers an ale and hearty tucker to weary modern-day travellers.
Up the rise is what used to be Dunn's Cash Store. It's also an eatery now but when it went up in 1854 it was vital part of a fledgling township. And in between was another village necessity - Mr. Rump's bakery.
"That was where the children would call in on their way to school and get a sugar bun for a penny," said Carole. "Or the ladies would ask for a dozen loaves of bread and they'd get thirteen to the dozen - a baker's dozen."
But for Carole and the others in the local historical society the old Highercombe Hotel at the top of the square is their showpiece. It's been a local landmark since 1854 but it only survived as a pub for twenty years. As Carole explained it was killed off by the competition across the green.
"Tea Tree Gully Inn was on the main road which was the coaching road," she said. "So it got most of the trade - there wasn't enough trade to keep two hotels going…"
So the Highercombe became the pub with no beer but it's had a rich and varied life since being used as a Post Office and a school.
Gill Starks of the National Trust showed us the big meeting room on the ground floor. "It was used as a schoolroom," she said. "The headmaster lived upstairs so it was the ideal room to take the overflow from the local Tea Tree Gully Primary School."
On the other side of the building the old bar and cellar switched to sorting the mail instead. On the other side of the light-filled hallway is the upstairs flat used by the Postmistress. Pop into her office and you can imagine her sitting at her desk tapping out her weekly report on the old typewriter. She even had her own private stairway to the Post Office below.
Luckily for us, a 1960s campaign saw the partitions come down and the building handed back to the National Trust so the original meeting room is in use again and they've given the Old Highercombe Hotel Folk Museum a delightful sense of colonial life in Tea Tree Gully.
An impressive brass bed is the centrepiece of the main bedroom and the good china is out in the dining room - complete with revolving cruet set. It's as though time has stood still.
The headmaster lived here until the 1930s and the Post Office remained another three decades until the 60s.
The old inn has plenty of tales - for old-timers it's a step back to the days of visiting Grandma and for student visitors it's a window of life before TV and computers - and Tea Tree Plaza!
The Old Highercombe Hotel Folk Museum might be the pub with no beer but it's got plenty of cheer. It's open Sundays between 2 and 5 or other times by arrangement.
And for the National Trust's 50th celebrations, there's a special heritage bus tour with afternoon tea included at the Museum coming up for Postcards viewers. Contact the TTG Library for details.
Old Highercombe Hotel Folk Museum
3 Perserverance Road
Tea Tree Gully
Open Sundays 2.00 - 5.00pm
Group tours by arrangement
Phone (08) 8264 0309Bus and Museum Tour
Bookings TTG Library
Phone (08) 8397 7333
