Find tools and resources to help you research pubs and hotels in Victoria. Includes information on the history of Victorian liquor licensing laws.
Traditionally, pubs and hotels were largely seen as the domain of men, places where men could unwind after a hard day's work, without the complicating presence of women. Of course, women have always been present in pubs and hotels, even if their roles were often limited to behind the scenes, or the bar.
In recent years, historians such as Dr Diane Kirkby and Dr Clare Wright have been working to raise the profile of women in pubs and hotels, uncovering the rich history that is their legacy.
Many of us have women ancestors who worked in a hotel. Women have been barmaids, cooks, licensees, and performers; they've been servants and kitchen hands; cleaners and security guards.
This page will help you find resources on the social history of women in pubs.
Negative - Woman & Dog Outside Pennyweight Hotel, Ballarat, Victoria, circa 1875. Courtesy of Museums Victoria, item MM 42
As early as the 1850s, women were working as publicans in Melbourne. Whilst the figure was small in the early years (just two per cent in Melbourne in 1853), by 1876 (after the advent of the goldrush), that figure had jumped to 22 per cent (source).
If you have a female publican in your family tree, see our Publicans tab for resources to assist with your research.
To find out more about her working conditions, the following resources will be helpful:
The concept of the 'barmaid' emerged out of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. People moved in large numbers from the country to the city, causing the number of hotels in urban areas to increase dramatically.
In the 1830s, bar counters began to appear in public houses, and the concept of the barmaid was born! (source)
The Library holds several autobiographies penned by Australian barmaids from the late 1890s and early 1900s, including the following:
Counter attractions at the Royal. Pen and ink drawing by S.T.Gill; H90.91/323
Barmaids were not listed in the Trades section of directories, but you can find them listed in the Australian Electoral Rolls:
Detail from Commonwealth of Australia, State of Victoria electoral roll, 1926
Barmaids and their working conditions were often mentioned in the news, and you can even find the names of individual barmaids.
East Murchison News, 14 August 1908, p 4
The National Library of Australia's Trove newspapers database is an excellent resource where you can research hundreds of thousands of pages of digitised historic newspapers online.To find out more about Trove's digitised historic newspapers and how to search them, see their Help pages.
More information about researching newspapers at the Library in our Newspapers research guides.
You can read more about the history of barmaids in Australia in: Barmaids. A history of women's work in pubs.
The Ladies' Lounge was a private dining room or parlour away from a hotel's public bar where women could go to drink and socialise. While the concept was frowned upon in the early 1900s (as it was socially unacceptable for 'respectable' women to drink in pubs), the idea gained traction during WWII and by the 1950s, they were a common sight in Victoria's hotels.
You can find out more about the history of ladies lounges in our blog: Ladies in the lounge.
Tallangatta Hotel, interior views, [Nov 1954]; RWP/1687
Women held many other occupations in pubs and licensed venues such as hotels. Many of these occupations leave little or no written record behind but persistence and diligence can sometimes yield good results.
The first challenge in researching women in history is to ascertain their names. Many women changed their names due to marriage, some migrant women adjusted their names to make them more palatable to an English-speaking society. Once you have a name you can begin searching using the regular genealogy steps. You can learn more about how to start your research using the Researching your Victorian ancestors research guide.
Tallangatta hotel, interior views. State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria. 1954. RWP/16871
Detail from Divided Attention, A/S29/12/87/SUPP, showing a female server in a hotel or bar, responding to the attentions of a passing gentleman. Supplement to the Australasian Sketcher, December 2, 1887 by A. Colquhoun. Printed by Troedel & Co lithographers.
'Caddie had to survive. Left without money, and with two young children to fend for, she set out to make a new life by working at the only job she could find – behind the bar of a hotel.'
Caddie, a Sydney Barmaid, is the ficitionalised autobiography of Sydney barmaid, Catherine Beatrice ('Caddie') Edmonds. The book was published in 1953 to widespread critical acclaim, and went on to be a bestseller following the release of a film adaptation in 1976.
Chloe by Jules Lefebvre (1875)
Chloe is a famous oil painting by French academic painter, Jules Lefebvre, that hangs on the wall of Melbourne's Young & Jackson Hotel.
You can read more about the model behind the painting in Katrina Kell's creative retelling of her life: Chloé: revolution, art and intrigue in bohemian Paris.
Confessions of a city barmaid follows the exploits of a young barmaid called Birdie in 1920s Melbourne. The novella was one of a series of salacious titled in the 1920s published by Billy Williams (aka 'The Hawklet').
