The 'Drunken Admiral'
This fine building has had a colourful career, beginning back in 1825. It was originally built for the Leith Australia Company, founded in Scotland in 1822, with two aims; to encourage trade between Britain and Van Diemen's Land, and to aid the emigration of Scottish families to the colonies. The Company was more successful with its emigration scheme, which gave Hobart Town many industrious artisans.
In 1828 the building was leased as a store, and later also a barracks, for the Army's Ordnance Corps. After 1849 it was used as a receiving depot and temporary accomodation for military pensioners. These were old soldiers who were persuaded to emigrate, lured by the promise of a free passage, 1 hectare of land and a horse. In return they acted as guards on a convict ship, and performed 12 days of military training per year, so that they could be called up at short notice. The scheme was not a success: between 1849 and 1851, pensioners unable or unwilling to move out of the building ripped out the woodwork for firewood. The building, in a disgraceful state of filth and disrepair, was handed over to the Immigration Association in 1851 for use as an Emigrant Depot.
Its first tenants were the 203 passengers from the Beulah, 169 of whom were single women. These were girls from Irish workhouses, sent out to meet the demand for domestic servants in the now prosperous colony. Most of them quickly found employment, despite their complete lack of experience and the fact that nearly all were Roman Catholics in a predominantly Protestant society. Within a few years the building took on yet another identity, as Murdoch's flour mill and warehouse.
After 1923 it was swallowed up in Henry Jones' empire, and became the 'Welfare Building', with staff facilities that included separate dining rooms for Men' and 'Girls.
It became the 'Drunken Admiral' restaurant in 1978.