Dry Zones: Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor Licensing History

166 Pages·2019·2.053 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Jean Taylor

Dry Zones
Planning and the
Hangovers of Liquor
Licensing History
Elizabeth Jean Taylor
Dry Zones
“Elizabeth Jean Taylor’s Dry Zones: Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor
Licensing History is thoroughly researched and well-balanced, and is the most
complete description and explanation of the evolution of Melbourne’s liquor
licensing written to date.”
—David Merrett, University of Melbourne, Australia
Elizabeth Jean Taylor
Dry Zones
Planning and the Hangovers
of Liquor Licensing History
Elizabeth Jean Taylor
Centre for Urban Research
Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology (RMIT)
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
ISBN 978-981-13-2786-5 ISBN 978-981-13-2787-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2787-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956587
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A
cknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the reviewers of the earlier drafts of this
book. Thanks also to Pam Strijder, Judy and Len Taylor, and The
Harcourt Heritage Museum especially George Milford for help with
local and family history; to Kate Taylor for recordings of our grand-
mother Una; to Joshua Pitt at Palgrave Macmillan for commissioning
the work; and to Robin the cat for sitting at my side (or on my lap/
keyboard) while writing. And thanks to the many people who contrib-
uted (sometimes inadvertently) ideas and comments on this book’s
content including: Andrew Bonnici, Scott Boydle, Andrew Butt, Nicole
Cook, Kulja Coulston, Graeme Davison, Jennifer Day, Robert Freestone,
Brendan Gleeson, Robin Goodman, Annette Kroen, Christian Lamker,
Crystal Legacy, Cameron Logan, Clay Lucas, Chris McConville, David
Merrett, Luke Miller, David Nichols, Andi Nygaard, Kath Phelan, Helen
Rowe, Stephen Rowley, Andrew Taylor, Sarah Taylor (especially for map-
ping help), Kate Tucker, Ilan Wiesel, Claire Wilkinson, Claire Wright,
and to those with whom I have had many productive discussions over a
drink at the Clyde Hotel.
v
c
ontents
1 Introduction: Walter’s Hotel, 1882 1
References 8
2 The Talbot Hotel, 1883: A Tavern in the (Teetotal) Town 11
2.1 A Temperance Carol 13
2.2 Alcohol and the State: Close Enemies 19
2.3 The Local: Something Borrowed, Something New 22
2.4 Temperance and Local Control 27
2.5 Think Globally, Act Local (Option) 30
References 39
3 The Live and Let Live Hotel, 1876–1912: Local Option
in Victoria 43
3.1 Local Limits and Vetos 46
3.2 Freezes and Triennial Polls 49
3.3 Voluntary Local Option Polls and the Statutory Limit 51
3.4 The License Reduction Board 56
3.5 The Statewide Local Option Poll, 1920 61
3.6 Mapping 1920 Poll Results and Religion 67
References 71
4 The Old England Hotel, 1922: Hangovers 75
4.1 The “Swill” 77
4.2 The Enduring Dry Zones 82
vii
viii CoNTENTS
4.3 Local Option as Zoning (Before Zoning) 85
4.4 Local Option and Residential Amenity 90
4.5 Planning for Pubs, and Parking 95
4.6 Music and Big Boxes, Smaller Prohibitions 99
References 104
5 The Highland Society: Hair of the Dog 111
5.1 Direct Local Democracy: Freedom or Its Opposite? 115
5.2 Big Box-Ers: Violence and Alcohol in Place 118
5.3 Liberalism: “The Trouble Is the Manner of Enforcement” 123
References 133
6 Epilogue: “HAPPY NYE, 1984” 139
References 143
7 Appendices 145
7.1 Appendix: Local Option Poll Results 1886–1906 145
7.2 Appendix: State-Wide Local Poll Results 1920 147
7.3 Appendix: Timeline of Amenity and Objection Rights
Around Liquor Licensing in Victoria 156
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 1.1 Map of hotels past of Harcourt and Barkers Creek, Victoria 5
Fig. 3.1 Result of statewide local option poll—1920, Melbourne
licensing districts 65
Fig. 3.2 Result of statewide local option poll—1920, Victorian
licensing districts 66
Fig. 3.3 1920 local option poll dry results by number, %, and threshold 66
Fig. 3.4 Local option poll result—“no license” (dry) by Roman
Catholics and Methodists (% of district) 69
Fig. 3.5 Licensed years of hotels in Harcourt and Barkers Creek,
Victoria 70
ix
l t
ist of Ables
Table 2.1 Local option prohibition laws—examples by country 32
Table 7.1 Known results (and legal challenges) to local option polls
on licensing, 1886–1906 146
Table 7.2 Result of the local option poll—from Victoria Government
Gazette No. 207, Friday November 19, 1920 148
Table 7.3 1921 census and 1920 local option poll votes, by licensing
districts (averages) 156
Table 7.4 Timeline of residential amenity and zoning controls on
licensed premises, Victoria (indicative years) 157
Table 7.5 Timeline of objection rights/neighbourhood rights against
licensed premises, Victoria (indicative years) 159
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Walter’s Hotel, 1882
Abstract In this chapter Taylor introduces the influence of local
anti-alcohol policies of the temperance movement of the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries, using an 1882 incident at a hotel
in Barkers Creek, central Victoria, as an illustration. Taylor suggests that
the closure of all the hotels in Barkers Creek and neighboring Harcourt
by the 1920s as a result of local temperance policies and groups reflects
a larger story of legal and political change. The chapter introduces “local
option” rights and controls of the temperance era, suggesting these
smaller prohibitions have been overlooked and warrant re-examination
in light of contemporary planning challenges. With international exam-
ples but focusing on Victoria, the structure of the “Dry Zones” book
is outlined, seeking to offer a new perspective on the rise of democratic
controls on alcohol, their influence on liquor licensing and early zoning
ideas, and their legacies for cities and planning today.
Keywords Temperance · Prohibition · Urban history
Planning history · Australia
on August 12, 1882, the Castlemaine Police Court report in the
Bendigo Advertiser recounted how one John Wilkinson had been
charged with “unlawfully and maliciously afflicting grievous bodily
harm” on a Barkers Creek hotelkeeper, John Walters. The hotelkeeper
recalled how:
© The Author(s) 2019 1
E. J. Taylor, Dry Zones, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2787-2_1