Christine Stewart diaries of Collits’ Inn Restoration Project, Hartley Vale

MLMSS 11849

fonds

1970, 1998-2020

9670229

0.16 metres of textual and graphic material, (1 box)

Pierce Collits was transported to New South Wales in 1801 accompanied by his wife, a free woman. He was pardoned in 1810 and went on to become a substantial grazier as well as holding various government positions. In 1821 he was allowed to settle over the Blue Mountains and in c.1823 he built an inn in Hartley Vale to service people and stock using the first road descending Mount York. Initially known as the Golden Fleece it was the first wayside inn west of the Blue Mountains. Following Mitchell’s construction of Victoria Pass in 1832 the inn declined and became primarily a farm retained by Pierce Collits until his death in 1848. It passed from the Collits family in the 1870s and was eventually bought by Christine Stewart and husband in 1998. The inn was severely run down and over the next ten years Christine researched its history and restored the inn together with its outbuildings. It was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999. 

Created by the donor

Christine Stewart diaries of Collits’ Inn Restoration Project, Harley Vale, 1970, 1998-2020. 6 diaries including manuscript, letters, photographs, notes, printed material, maps, architectural plans, news clippings and ephemera.
Includes transcripts of interviews and copy of Barry Oakley’s speech at the opening of the Inn in 2002. Includes a program for the 1970 production in Canowindra of the musical ‘Collits’ Inn’ by T. Stuart Gurr with lyrics and music by Varney Monk which was first performed in the 1930s.
References: Library acquisition file

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales