Lots/411.html
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Town Lot 411
High Street, north side, between Pakenham to Market Street
The earliest owner of Lot 411 recorded by Hitchcock (1929) was Maria Gregson.
In 2023, Lot 411 is the site of the Commercial Hotel (1908), 80 High Street, formerly Albert's Hotel, now trading as Sun Dancer Backpackers.
Hitchcock 1919, describing the situation as he recalled it in 1869:
Next came the Albert Hotel on the site of which the Commercial Hotel now stands. The Albert Hotel was owned and kept by the late Captain John Thomas, who died a few years ago at the great age of 94. He used to trade to Batavia, Singapore, and Mauritius, first in a little cutter of 25 tons, and afterwards in a 100-ton schooner named the Empress. He it was who, after his retirement from the sea, taught most of our old-time coasting skippers all they knew of the art of navigation, and that was very little, as most of them used to find their way about by instinct or rule of thumb. In those go-as-you-please days certificates of competency were unheard of and anyone could be a shipmaster, doctor, or dentist without his qualifications being put to any test. There was consternation amongst the ancient mariners when certificates were first brought into vogue. Many of them, though they were splendid seamen, and had been sailing ships for years, could not pass even the very elementary examination then required until after several attempts, and some never succeeded in passing at all.
References and Links
Hitchcock, J.K. 1919, 'Early Days of Fremantle: High Street 50 Years Ago', Fremantle Times, one of a series of articles on 'Early Days of Fremantle' publ. 21 March - 20 June 1919.
Fremantle History Centre. Look for the PDFs called:
Purchasers of Fremantle Town Lots 1829-1837
Purchasers of Fremantle Town Lots 1855-1879
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 2 December, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/lots/411.html (it was last updated on 19 January, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.