Doncaster Arms Hotel (later Doncaster Hotel, Doncaster Inn, Stutt's Hotel, the Racecourse Hotel, and
the Doncaster)
Background
Built at the corner of Doncaster Road
and Bismark later (Victoria) Street in
1854 and named the Doncaster Arms Hotel, it was owned by William Burnley and run
by John Robert Wilson. In 1860, Burnley had died and two years later the hotel and it's 140 acres of land was sold to Michael
Egan, a timber
merchant. Mathew Hoare then became license.
Doncaster Road
In
the 1850's, Doncaster Road was unformed beyond the Hotel where Wilson
lived and travellers had to open Wilson's slip rails
to pass further east
along a bush track.
Horse races
In 1867, the
road was cleared and it was then that horse races were held along Doncaster Road. The start was at Blackburn Road and the
finish was naturally at the hotel, a race of exactly one mile. In the 1850s, mail was carried to Warrandyte by horseback.
As the Mailman passed, he dropped a bag of mail for Doncaster at the hotel. It was not a post office, letters were merely
left there.
The main race each day was the Doncaster Handicap. The distance was mostly
about
one mile and the prize money one or two pounds. Coaches and cabs left
the Royal Mail Hotel at the corner of Swanston and
Bourke Street on the day
of the race and returned after the last race. Admission was one shilling to
the flat and
one and six to the saddling paddock, Ladies free.
When William Stutt purchased the hotel in 1894,
he took an active part in
the event becoming chief steward. That year the other stewards were: A.
Witchell, E. Bullock
and E. J. Lawrence. The starter was G. Beaven and the
Judge R. Sweetnam.
In 1899, the last race
day was held in Doncaster. William Stutt became a well-known and respected man in the district, during his time
as publican the hotel was known as Stutt's Hotel.He purchased Sir Thomas Fitgerald's home, Tullamore, now the Eastern Golf
clubhouse, where he bred and raced horses. After his death, his wife continued to own the hotel for a few years.
The
Post Office
In 1860, the Doncaster Post Office was opened with Joseph Pickering as
Postmaster but when
Pickering died Mathew Hoare was appointed Postmaster for three years, then the hotel was called the Post Office Hotel for
hotels were
often used as an official place for such functions as inquests or elections.
The 1867 Roads Board
election was held in the hotel. Mathew Hoare had
unsuccessfully stood for council the previous year. That year he
gave free
beer to all voters and was elected.
When Hoare sold the hotel in the 1870s, he retired
to his farm in Blackburn
Road.
In the 1890s, Mrs. Lithgow organised horse races in the hundred
acre
paddock alongside the hotel. A racing club was formed and a race day held in
November each year. The program
included a race for market gardeners and
fruit growers, bread and milk cart horses, hacks and also a selling race.
The
hotel was also known as the "Racecourse Hotel" during the 1890s .
The
New Hotels
In 1960, the old building was demolished and the new Doncaster
Inn Hotel built in its place.
In July 1998. the Inn was replaced by
the new Doncaster Hotel, which survives to the present..
(Author research, and
some content adapted from an article published by the DTHS, 1993)
