Mrs Wicken's books

Harriett Wicken was not the first woman to publish a cookery book purporting to meet the particular requirements of the Australian kitchen, but she was by far the most prolific of the authors whose works were available in the early years of the twentieth century. Her lessons and demonstrations introduced her methods to countless women while her books found their way into thousands of households, making her perhaps the most influential cookery writer of her time. Wicken was unique among the graduates of the National Training School for Cookery in Australia in that she had already published a book of her recipes before leaving England. In addition she was possibly the first woman with an established profile as a cookery expert to give her name to a recipe book produced as advertising material by an Australian commercial interest. The outline of her career gives an indication of the activities which helped to establish her as a recognised authority. She built on this image with a range of publications.

The Kingswood Cookery Book. 

The first edition of The Kingswood Cookery Book was published in London by Chapman and Hall, the same publishers who produced the handbook for the National School for Cookery, in 1885.[1] It was a small, soft covered pamphlet of 96 pages which contained 171 recipes. Reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald the book was considered worthy of mention ‘on account of the plainness and simplicity, and at the same time the excellence, of the recipes’ and Wicken was described as ‘one of the leading professors of the Kensington School of Cookery’.[2] It sold for 2s and was available for George Robertson and Co.[3]

Written in the first person, her Preface is a warm introduction to the recipes which follow. Wicken begins by apologising for ‘adding one more to the vast number’ of recipes books already published but admits that she has written hers with much pleasure at the request of ladies who have attended her demonstrations. Stressing the importance of good cooking ‘to the comfort and well-being of all classes of the community’ and her wish that cookery will form an important part of the education of girls she goes on to assure her readers that:

the pleasure and gratification (to say nothing of the utility) of being able to place on the table a diner prepared and cooked, if necessary, by her own hands, is so great that no English woman can realise, unless she has experienced it, and having once felt it would, I am sure, be willing to give up a small portion of her time to acquire a knowledge which would prove so pleasant and profitable to herself and her household.

Sentiments which perhaps reflect the pleasure she gained from her own cooking experiences and foreshadow the profit she hoped to gain from furthering the education of ‘the Women of England’ to whom she dedicated her book. 

The recipe section of the book is preceded by general comments on methods and techniques, including notes on roasting in a gas oven written in her engaging voice which is precise without being overly didactic. There is nothing remarkable about the recipes she includes, dishes chosen to be, as she explains, simple, inexpensive, and useful to provide some variety.

After she arrived in Australia, Wicken negotiated with the bookseller George Robertson and Co. for the printing of an Australian edition of the Kingswood which was published in 1888.[4] This is an altogether grander and more impressive publication, with a hard, red cover containing 512 recipes and running to 264 pages. The preface is dated Melbourne, September 1888 and the book is dedicated to Lady Loch, whose ‘kind support and encouragement’ was instrumental in Wicken’s success in Melbourne. The review in the Sydney Morning Herald was effusive in praise of Wicken’s achievement, in particular the menus for twelve family dinners in which ‘the delicate point of economy has been closely considered without destroying the tout ensemble of very appetising meals’, a feat the writer considered ‘worthy of great praise’.[5]

Although Wicken claimed to have completely rewritten the whole of the book to make it ‘a really practical guide to the Australian housekeeper’ and to have eliminated ‘many recipes quite useless in Australia’ the basis of the book is the recipes from the original Kingswood with substantial additions–recipes for jams for example, the inclusion of Colonial Goose and Australian sounding dishes like Melbourne Pudding and Sydney Sauce. [6] With the inclusion of ‘Hints for Cookery Students’ and notes on ‘Domestic Economy’ Wicken no doubt subsequently saw this publication as a more than useful tool for her students at the Technical College and the copy in the State library of New South Wales is the one Harriet presented to the Hon. J. H. Carruthers, the Minister of Public Instruction in September 1889. 

The third edition of the Kingswood was published by Edwards, Dunlop and Co. in 1891, and the fourth and fifth editions by Angus and Robertson in 1898 and 1900 respectively.[7] Each subsequent publication involved some minor alterations and the addition of more recipes. The fourth edition saw the inclusion of recipes for rosella jelly and rosella gateau, as well as how to cook chokos, egg plant, tonga beans, okra and her use of the tender shoots of pumpkin as a substitute for spinach.[8] The Ladies’ Column of the Queenslander praised the work and in particular complemented the publishers on the clear type and the convenient ‘get up’ of the book–its strong, pliable binding which meant that it could be lain flat and remain open at the relevant page.[9] The emphasis on economy and the inclusion of original recipes for cooking vegetables, for jam making and for banana dishes were welcome but the reviewer went on to plead for the addition of one or two special recipes for home-made yeast and bush bakery for the benefit of bush readers. Despite her experience in Australia Wicken was hardly familiar with the vagaries and restrictions of life in the bush. Her recipes were designed for suburban women likely to have access to gas stoves, fresh fish, ice for their ice chests and a variety of vegetables. 

By the time the fifth edition appeared in 1900 the Kingswood was well established as a reliable publication, but it also faced significant competition. In the Australian Town and Country Journal it was ‘noted’ along with Fanny Fawcett Story’s The Australian economic cookery book and household companion and Zara Aronson’s XXth Century Cooking.[10]Rather than focusing on the content, reviews concentrated on the use of new printing technology which meant this edition was the biggest to date and also the cheapest.[11] The sixth and final edition of the Kingswood appeared in 1906, this time published by Whitcombe and Tombs, and seemed to be remarkable only because it was cheap and claimed to contain more than 1600 recipes.[12] The Kingswood was by far the most popular of Wicken’s books and the one by which she is remembered today. In all 30,000 copies were printed.[13]

The years during which she was associated with the Technical College in Sydney saw Wicken involved with a number of publications. Some were small collections of recipes taken from, or variations of, those in the Kingswood. These include The Cook’s Compass a cookery guide published by J. G. Hank’s and Co., retail and family grocers of George Street, Sydney, Fish Dainties, written at the request of the Mutual Provedoring Company of Melbourne, and Lenten Dishes published by Angus and Robertson.[14] She also contributed three hundred of her recipes to Dr Phillip Muskett’s The Art of Living in Australia and compiled The Australian Home, subtitled ‘A handbook of domestic economy’.[15]

The Cook’s Compass and Fish Dainties

That Wicken should be approached by commercial concerns to provide recipes for their publications is testimony to the reputation she had established in both Sydney and Melbourne. Her involvement with these businesses demonstrates that they thought she was a credible and respectable ambassador for their products. 

J. G Hanks and Co. was a well-regarded grocery business in operation in Sydney since 1855 in one guise or another, and confident that Mrs Wicken’s imprimatur was ‘sufficient guarantee of the value of the advice tendered’ in the Cook’s Compass.[16] The Mutual Provedoring Company on the other hand was a newly established (but short-lived) enterprise in Melbourne, formed to supply the Melbourne market with ‘high-class articles of diet for the dinner table’ notably fish, both locally sourced and imported.[17]

Both The Cook’s Compass and Fish Dainties were attractive, hard-cover publications, likely given to customers free, or at least at minimal cost. [18] There is no record of the number of copies printed in either case, nor is there any record of what remuneration Wicken received for her efforts, although she undoubtedly negotiated some form of payment which would have been a welcome supplement to her income from the Technical College and the classes she conducted on her own behalf. Neither book contained new and original recipes, rather Wicken reworked and/or renamed those already available in the Kingswood. 

The Cook’s Compass was not reviewed in the press, but Fish Dainties did attract some attention. A review in the Melbourne Herald damned the book with faint praise, wishing on the one hand that ‘the instructions had been more carefully contrived to suit those who know little of the art of cooking’ while noting that ‘there is very much in the book that will be useful and will help the economical housewife’.[19] More importantly for Wicken, it brought her to the attention of Dr. Muskett. Muskett was no doubt already aware of Wicken’s classes at the Technical College but her involvement with the Mutual Provedoring Company confirmed their common interest in improving the Australian diet. Muskett thought Fish Dainties ‘an admirable production’.[20]

The Australian Home: a handbook of domestic economy

Wicken undoubtedly saw The Australian Home, intended as a companion to the Kingswood, as the perfect textbook for her students at the Technical College in the absence of anything similar developed by the Department of Education.[21]Written in ‘the simplest possible language’ this book distilled her own experience and her readings ‘from many authors who have given much time and thought’ to the study of domestic economy.[22] Unsurprisingly Wicken emphasised that studying ‘the management of the family and home’ was all-important since ‘the comfort and well-being of the home depends entirely upon the woman who rules it’ and proceeded to give instruction on everything from the mechanism of digestion through the furnishing of the home and thrifty shopping to how to light a fire. [23] Generally well received, the Daily Telegraph praised Wicken’s ‘pleasant and unpretentious style as if the writer were chatting with her pupils’.[24]

However, the review in the Queenslander noted:

The space she allows herself is 260 smallish pages, of which she allots some half dozen to certain manufacturers wherein to advertise their wares, an undertaking, moreover, which the authoress herself is not backward in seconding, as opportunity may occur, in the text itself.  Similar kindness is also shown towards one or two vendors of merchandise who have secured a position on the fly-leaves of elsewhere within the covers. 

This practice was frowned upon:

It seems to us … that a writer, although holding so responsible an official position as that of Mrs Wicken, who so far departs from the etiquette observed by self-respecting members of the literary guild proper as not merely to allow her book to be interleaved with trade advertisements, but even to lend her letterpress to commending their wares, can hardly expect her work to receive the serious attention of any competent critic. We may state, however, in the phraseology of commerce–the domain to which, rather than to that of science, Mrs Wicken’s little “epitome” seems to us properly to belong–that the contents, which we have carefully perused, are “fair to middling.”[25]

Regardless, few of her readers would have been overly troubled by the intrusion of commerce into a treatise on home management since recipe books of the time were usually full of advertisements of one sort or another.

The need to recoup some of the publishing costs from advertisers was simply a fact of publishing life. There is no knowing what form of agreement Wicken had with her publishers, Edwards, Dunlop and Co., who issued both The Australian Home and the third edition of The Kingswood Cookery Book, in which the distributors of ‘the various things I mention in my recipes’ are named and advertised in the book. [26] The details of any contract for either book are lost but it is likely that Wicken negotiated some profit-sharing arrangement whereby the costs of production, not covered by advertising, were taken out of the sales revenue and the surplus shared. Again, there is no record of the number of copies of The Australian Home issued by Edwards, Dunlop and Co. but given the limited market for a textbook of this nature, and the fact that it only ran to one edition, it can be assumed neither Wicken nor her publisher received any significant monetary gain.

The Art of Living in Australia

Dr. Philip Muskett was an Australian medical practitioner whose previous publications had focused on the health and well-being of children.[27] In The Art of Living in Australia he set out to encourage Australians to adapt their food habits to the climate. Australia, he believed, would ‘only reach the zenith of her possibilities when her people conform to her climatic requirements.’[28] Muskett advocated eating less meat and eating more fruit and particularly more vegetables. He decried the consumption of tea, extoled the virtues of salad, encouraged not only more adventurous eating but also more imaginative cooking, and argued for the importance of educating Australia’s young women in the art and science of cookery. 

As noted above, Muskett knew of Wicken’s classes at the Technical College and was probably familiar with her recipe collections.[29] He would have recognised her as sympathetic to his cause. For example, in the first Australian edition of the Kingswood  Wicken advocated ‘well cooked vegetables and fruit should be seen on our tables at every meal during the summer’ and recommended bananas claiming they ‘contain three times as much nourishment as meat and potatoes, and as a food are superior to bread.’[30] Her established reputation and her general support for his ideas recommended Wicken as a suitable person to contribute the recipes for his book. She duly provided notes on the furnishing and necessary equipment for the kitchen, the benefits of the ice chest and some general cooking advice along with a total of three hundred recipes – fifty for each of the categories soups, fish, meat, vegetables, salads and sauces, and sweets – all similar to those already available in the Kingswood.

Lenten Dishes and Australian Table Dainties and Appetising Dishes 

By the time Lenten Dishes, a collection of meat-free recipes, appeared in 1896 Wicken’s reputation was firmly established. [31] Reviews of this small volume refer to Wicken variously as a ‘well-known teacher’, ‘the clever lecturer’ or even ‘our old friend’.[32] This booklet was also her first involvement with the publishers Angus and Robertson, which meant that it was widely distributed in the trade and to the press. Anyone familiar with the Kingswood would have recognised most of these recipes, but the significance of this odd little book is Wicken’s continued emphasis on fish and vegetables, and the stipulation that a varied diet is more likely to keep a family in good health. 

Australian Table Dainties and Appetising Dishes, subtitled ‘a handy guide for Australian Housekeepers in the preparation of fruit, vegetables, game, fish, salads, sweets, and the picnic basket’ was also published in 1896.[33] This was the first of Wicken’s books to demonstrably reflect Australian produce and the influence of both Dr Muskett and her son, Percy, who must have kept her informed of his experiments at the Agricultural College. Fish Dainties and Lenten Dishes had already reflected Wicken’s affinity for Muskett’s cause, in particular the consumption of more fish and vegetables and preparing them in more imaginative ways. 

In Australian Table Dainties she took up many of Muskett’s themes, beginning:

Australia, the land of sunshine and pleasant fruits, the sparkling waters of her rocky coast and her swift-flowing rivers teeming with fish, and yet her children living on a daily diet of chops and steaks! Surely this is a mistake, and one that should not be allowed to continue when the remedy is so close at hand and so pleasant withal.

She recommended that housekeepers anxious to provide more variety in their menus need look no further than the more frequent introduction of fish, vegetables and fruit.[34] Moreover, by introducing ‘a variety of well-cooked vegetables and fruit at every meal … the demand for them would increase’ and women could help ‘largely in developing the resources of this country’. Why not a fish salad for lunch or fruit salad ‘on one of our scorching hot days’: 

How delicious it is, and yet how seldom seen; it requires no cooking and is therefore invaluable on days when even the thought of standing over a fire makes one uncomfortably hot, and it is just at this very time of year that the most delicious fruits for salad are ripe.

Wicken perhaps recognised that few housewives would have read Muskett’s book, but they could be influenced by her, and she had the opportunity to take these ideas to a wider audience.

The ingredients she uses also reflect her experience in Queensland where she had been conducting classes and demonstrations with Amy Schauer. While Muskett had promoted the introduction of, among others, globe artichokes, brussels sprouts, eggplant, kohl rabi and corn, Wicken includes a number of tropical and more unusual fruits–cape gooseberries, custard apples, guavas, loquats, mangos, paw-paw, passionfruit, and soursop.  Wicken also incorporated some of these new ideas in the revised Kingswood which was published in 1898. 

Useful Recipes

This is another small collection of recipes which Wicken appears to have had printed on her own account. When negotiating with Angus and Robertson for the printing of the fifth edition of the Kingswood, Harriet proposed these ‘Useful Recipes’ should be included. Angus and Robertson declined, but most of these recipes did find their way into the final sixth edition of the Kingswood published by Whitcombe and Tombs.[35]

Wicken may also have seen these smaller, cheaper booklets, including Lenten Dishes and Australian Table Dainties, as ideal for distribution at her classes. When she moved to Western Australia in 1899, she advertised Australian Table Dainties available for 1s 6d and Useful Recipes for 6d. whereas the Kingswood cost 3s 6d.[36]

Dainty Foods

Her last book, Dainty Foods, published in 1911 by the Progressive Thinker’s Library was a collection of easily prepared and inexpensive dishes meant to compliment those in the Kingswood. This appears to have been a commercial venture of some sort since she praises Waroombah Honey and the products manufactured under the Fountain brand, both of which are advertised in the book.[37] Altogether Dainty Foods includes thirty-six meat-based recipes, but these are largely for chicken and offal of one sort or another (brains, kidneys, tripe) and even one for raw meat balls. There is no mention of exotic fruits and vegetables but rather an emphasis on fish recipes again, and the odd recipe using bran and Protose (a meat substitute invented by Kellogg) suggesting that the progressive thinkers were advocates of a largely vegetarian diet or at least abstemious consumption. Wicken ends her introduction with an appeal to her readers:

since healthy bodies and pure minds are the most desirable possessions, it surely becomes the duty and pleasure of Australian women to do all they can to bring about such a happy state of affairs.[38]

Little is known about the Progressive Thinkers’ Library other than that it was just that, a lending library specialising in books on health and healing, diet, and physical culture, appealing to those who wanted to gain confidence, build their will power, increase their personal magnetism and generally become a more active participant in the business and social life around them.[39] Beyond the publication of this booklet, nothing is known of Mrs Wicken’s involvement with this organisation.  

Wicken’s publishing history suggests that she was not merely a good cook and a capable instructor, she was also an astute businesswoman. It is possible that Wicken paid some of the costs for the publication of the first edition of the Kingswood, published in London before she came to Sydney, and that this was a calculated move to demonstrate her reputation before she arrived in the colony and to boost her credentials as she established herself here. Wicken undoubtedly fully appreciated that the success of her cookery classes and the number and quality of her publications were intertwined–the more successful and the more publicity she gained for her classes the greater the sale of her books was likely to be; the more books she sold the more widespread her reputation with the likely result that her classes would be more popular. The booklets she had published which she made available at her classes are testimony to her entrepreneurship. Likewise, her endorsement of certain brands and companies was certainly to her financial advantage. Her direct association with the likes of J. G Hanks and Company and the Mutual Provedoring Company emphasises that she saw her cooking life as a career and a business venture.  

Harriet Wicken lacked neither spirit nor business acumen. Through hard work and carefully managing her ‘brand’ she was able to use her talents to build herself a successful career. Her qualifications from the National Training School for Cookery and her association with the Technical College in Sydney gave her gravitas and established her credentials and she was not ashamed to capitalise on and exploit her reputation. Just how much influence she had on domestic cookery in Australia is impossible to gauge but her later publications suggest she developed a keen understanding of what was appropriate for the local conditions. While not an Australian born author, like Mina Rawson or Hannah Maclurcan, Wicken's contribution should not be underestimated.

---

[1] H. F. Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book (London: Chapman and Hall, 1885).

[2] Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 20 February 1886, p. 9, ‘Reviews’.

[3] This is George Robertson and Co the printers and publishers based in Melbourne, not to be confused with George Robertson of the publishers Angus and Robertson, Sydney.

[4] H. F. Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book (Melbourne and Sydney: George Robertson & Co., 1888).

[5] SMH, 2 March 1889, p. 7, ‘Women’s column’.

[6] Wicken, Kingswood 1888, Preface.

[7] Harriet Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book, 3^rd edition (Sydney: Edwards, Dunlop and Co., 1891), 283 pages; Harriet Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book, 4^th edition (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1898), 372 pages; Harriet Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book, 5^thedition (Sydney: Angus and Robertson 1900), 382 pages.

[8] Rosella is the calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa.

[9] Queenslander, 28 May 1898, p. 30, ‘The Kingswood Cookery Book’.

[10] Australian Town and Country Journal, 29 September 1900, p. 58, ‘Short notice’.

[11] National Advocate (Bathurst), 28 September 1900, p. 2, ‘Kingswood cookery book.’

[12] The Kingswood Cookery Book, 6th edition (Sydney: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1906) 428 pages. Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 14 February 1906, p. 5, ‘A new cook book’; Daily Telegraph (Launceston), 12 February 1906, p. 8, ‘Publications’; Leader (Melbourne), 17 February 1906, p. 39, ‘The Household’.

[13] The final publication of the Kingswood, the sixth edition produced by Whitcombe and Tombs in 1906, claimed to have ‘completed the 30^ththousand’

[14] Mrs. H. Wicken, The Cook’s Compass (Sydney: J.G. Hanks Co., 1890), publication date based on advertisement for Mrs Wicken’s classes at the Technical College due to commence on 9 February 1891, 151 pages; Fish Dainties (Melbourne: The Mutual Provedoring Company Limited, 1892), 56 pages; Lenten Dishes (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1896), 126 pages.

[15] Phillip E. Muskett, The Art of Living in Australia (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1893); Harriett Wicken, The Australian Home. A handbook of domestic economy (Sydney: Edwards, Dunlop and Co. Ltd, 1891)

[16] Wicken, Cook’s Compass, preface.

[17] Table Talk (Melb.), 14 August 1891 p. 4, ‘The Mutual Provedoring Company Limited’; Argus (Melb.), 29 December 1891, p. 6 ‘Mutual Provedoring Company’; Fitzroy City Press, (Melb.), 22 July 1892, p. 2 ‘Our new food supply’. The business went into liquidation in 1893, Argus (Melb.), 9 March 1893, p. 3 and The Age (Melb.) 7 April 1894, p. 15.

[18] Fish Dainties given away free to customers to popularise the use of fish Daily Telegraph (Syd), 16 July 1892, p. 9 ‘Passing notes’ by Faustus.

[19] Herald (Melb.), 23 February 1892, p. 4 ‘Fish dainties.’

[20] ‘Our food supplies’, Daily Telegraph (Syd), 29 December 1892, p. 5. See also ‘Weekly Times (Melb.) 18 June 1892, p. 20., The Fish Supply’.

[21] Mrs. Wicken The Australian Home: A handbook of domestic economy (Sydney: Edwards, Dunlop & Co., 1891). Newspaper report that estimates had been sought for a proposed textbook, Daily Telegraph (Syd), 28 May 1888, p. 3, ‘Technical Education’. Museums of History NSW-State Archives (MHNSW-St. Ac.). NRS 3830, Education Department Files, 20/12605, Cookery 1882-1892, Bridges to Undersecretary, 7 October 1892, confirming that there were no set text books but that the courses of lessons offered at the Technical College followed the content of ‘the South Kensington Official Handbook of Cookery’ (cookery instruction), the Kingswood Cookery Book and The Australian Home (household management).

[22] Wicken, Australian Home, p. v.

[23] Wicken, Australian Home, p. 1.

[24] Daily Telegraph, 29 August 1891, p. 9, ‘Reviews’.

[25] Queenslander, 20 February 1892, p. 356, ‘Australian domestic economy’.

[26] Wicken, Kingswood, 3^rd edition, Edwards, Dunlop & Co., Sydney 1891.

[27] For Muskett see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/muskett-philip-edward-13123; Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 31 August 1909, p. 3, ‘Dr. Philip Muskett’.

[28] Dr. P. E. Muskett, The art of living in Australia (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1893).

[29] See Muskett, Art of Living, Preface. There is also evidence that Muskett’s sister, Alice Jane (see https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/muskett-alice-jane-7717) attended Wicken’s classes at the Technical College, see MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12606, letter to Minister for Public Instruction from students protesting against result of exam at Sydney Technical College, date stamped 23 February 1893 and signed by Alice J. Muskett among others.

[30] Wicken, Kingswood 1888, pp. 16, 19.

[31] H. F. Wicken, Lenten Dishes, (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1896), 162 pages containing 223 recipes..

[32] Australian Town and Country Journal, 29 February 1896, p. 34, ‘’Advertising’; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 22 February 1896, p. 392, ‘A cookery book for the season.’: Freeman’s Journal, 15 February 1896, p. 10, ‘Lenten dishes.’

[33] Mrs Wicken, Australian Table Dainties and Appetising Dishes (Sydney: Ward Lock & Co., 1897), 154 pages.

[34] Wicken, Australian Table Dainties, p. vii.

[35] Mrs Wicken, Useful Recipes (Sydney: Websdale, Shoosmith & Co., 1898), 31 pages, 75 recipes. MLMSS 3269 Angus and Robertson Archives, Collection 03 Angus and Robertson further records 1880–1979, series 01 Business records 1885–1973, sub-series 01 Angus and Robertson Business records 1885–1973, Box 73/1 Publishing Private Letter Book, 1898–1901, Angus and Robertson to Wicken, 22 January 1900, pp. 560-1.

[36] Advertising books for sale directly from the author, 60 Irwin Street, Perth, Western Mail (Perth), 19 May 1899, p. 36. 

[37] Mrs Wicken, Dainty Foods (Sydney: Progressive Thinker’s Library, 1911).

[38] Wicken, Dainty Foods, p. 10

[39] Globe (Syd), 12 July 1911, p. 2; Sun (Syd), 29 March 1914, p. 23 and 18 May 1914, p. 10.

The colonial experience of Thomas Dunsdon, confectioner.

Thomas Dunsdon arrived in Sydney with his wife Sarah and friend, and soon to be business associate, William Blyth, in October 1833.[1] A pastry cook by trade Thomas quickly set about establishing his credentials and developing his enterprise. He notified potential customers that he was ‘late cook and confectioner to their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria’ and advertised ‘Dinners, Supper, and every Department of the Art provided for, and attended to, at the shortest notice, and on the most economical scale’.[2] ‘Out Cooking’ would also be punctually attended to.

From his original address at 12 Hunter Street, Thomas moved to a location on George Street opposite the lumber yard early in 1834 where he and William Blyth offered potential customers confectionery, bread (at full weight), fancy biscuits (equal to the best in London), luncheon, tea, coffee, soup, and oyster rooms.’[3]

It seems Dunsdon quickly earned a reputation because in March 1835 he was chosen to cater for a fancy dress ball at Sir John Jamison’s Regent Ville near Penrith. Jamison was prominent in local settler society, with extensive landholdings and known to entertain lavishly – he was referred to as ‘The Hospitable Knight of Regent Ville’. Regent Ville, situated some 58 kilometres from Sydney and named in honour of the Prince Regent, was a model property built in 1823-4, where Jamison had a vineyard, grew crops, and trained horses.[4] This latest occasion would have been a difficult logistical challenge for Dunsdon under any circumstances but from the description of the event in the newspapers it was a huge undertaking.

For the fortnight leading up to Thursday 12 March work on accommodating the visitors had been on-going. A temporary ballroom, lavishly decorated and capable of holding all the 500 invited guests, was set up on the lawn in front of the house along with a number of tents to act as changing rooms for the gentlemen (the ladies were accommodated in the house). The festivities began with 100 guests sitting down to ‘a most sumptuous and elegant dinner at 5 o’clock’. By 10 pm all the guests, all 300 or more of them, were dancing ‘with great spirit’ which they kept up until past 2 am when a supper ‘of the most costly and elegant description’ which ‘reflected infinite credit upon Dunsdon’ was served – ‘all sort of eatables, and oceans of wines from Champagne to humble Port, fruit, confectionery of all sort, to be eaten and to be looked at covered the tables.’ Unfortunately, there is no mention of the menu. Finally, ‘at twelve in the morning breakfast was provided’. The description concluded:

Altogether the whole affair went off in the most satisfactory manner; the excellence of the arrangements–the care and attention of the managers,–the liberal and unsparing hand with which everything was provided,–and the nature of the party, caused it to be as sumptuous and splendid an entertainment as was ever given.

The correspondent for the Australian noted ‘how the thing could have been done so well at such a distance from Sydney, is a puzzle’ forgetting to mention that the event was conducted in the pouring rain.[5] While reports vary as to the number of guests who were in attendance, there was general agreement that the event was exceptional, ‘a scene never before witnessed in the Australian bush’ and ‘a far more splendid thing than had hitherto been seen in the colony.’[6]

Dunsdon’s experience and his royal patronage may have recommended him to Jamison, but his skill and credentials may not have endeared him to his competitors. With only newspaper reports to draw on it is difficult to form a picture of Thomas Dunsdon. Was he hard working and self-effacing or was he brash and confident? He was young, only in his early twenties, how did he fit into colonial society? What did more established caterers, like ex-convicts Stephen Bax and Martin Gill, with their experience of colonial mores, think of this interloper with his claims to royal patronage?[7] His success at Regent Ville ought to have been the making of Dunsdon’s career in Sydney but instead it may have precipitated a series of episodes aimed to damage his reputation.

The first of these came early. The prevailing liquor licensing regulations in New South Wales required that anyone wishing to sell ‘any ale, beer, or other malt liquor, or wine, cyder, ginger beer, spruce beer, brandy, rum, or any other fermented or spirituous liquors,’ in smaller amounts than 2 gallons at a time, had to apply for a license.[8] On the evidence of an informer Dunsdon was brought before the magistrates and fined £30 for selling ginger beer. Dunsdon was furious:

 

Dunsdon begs to remind his friends that he has been summoned this day by the informer named PRICE, a convicted felon, for selling one half pint of Refreshing Draught which the above PRICE has thought proper to call Ginger Beer, for the sale for which the Magistrates have fined me the Penalty of Thirty Pounds.

N.B. DUNSDON begs to inform his Friends that they may have the refreshing draught free of charge if they are known friends. 

No Constable need apply.[9]

On appeal the decision was quashed due to an irregularity in the way the charge had been worded. The regulations were unpopular, and the press was sympathetic to Dunsdon’s cause. The Australian, for example argued:

this is a law which is impolite and hurtful enough in England–but in a climate like our own, where some light beverage is absolutely necessary, to restrict its sale or to increase its price by a large sum for a license, is really unbearable; what the effect must be everywhere, we can’t imagine; unless it is the driving people to get drunk on spirits instead of refreshing themselves with what does them no harm. The informants however have a fine harvest before them–there being at least 200 places in town where they may lay the same information … It is to be earnestly hoped that this law be not suffered to remain in force another summer.[10]

The Sydney Monitor saw Dunsdon as the victim of the ‘tricks and malice of informers’ and insisted the constable responsible ‘should have been dismissed for having brought a vexatious and frivolous charge.’[11]The newspaper reports do not speculate on why the complaint should have been made against Dunsdon, but it remained a cause celebre and evidence of the unfairness of the law itself and of the lax approach of the police. Singling out Dunsdon may have been a straightforward desire to test the legislation but, as the article above makes clear, there were many other, less respectable, people who could have been charged ahead of him. It is possible that the main intention was to cause inconvenience and embarrassment to Dunsdon and to tarnish his reputation.

Business continued much as usual for the next couple of years, although Dunsdon appears to have spent less time catering. Rather he began importing a vast range of goods from medicinal lozenges and bottled fruits and jams to cheese, York hams, ‘elegant and piquant sauces’, and cake ornaments, along with advertising turtle soup occasionally and producing hot cross buns at Easter and twelfth cakes every January. This change in focus may have been due to ill health. In July 1837 he informed the public that he had ‘perfectly recovered from his late indisposition’ and had returned to his management of dinners, suppers and private parties.[12]

In December 1838 Dunsdon’s association with Sir John Jamison raised its head again. Rumours began circulating that he had charged Sir John £800 for the affair at Regent Ville more than three years earlier. Dunsdon was quick to defend himself:

One Hundred Pounds Reward

The above Reward will be paid to any party who will give such information as will lead to the discovery of the person or persons on conviction who gave information to his excellency Sir Maurice O’Connell to the effect that I charged Sir John Jamison £800 for supplying his Ball in 1835 (whereas my charge was £119 13s.11d) which is a most wilful and corrupt falsehood and must arise from some fiendish spirit of enmity, and it certainly will (if I cannot put a stop to such a calumny) be a most serious injury to my future welfare.[13]

The newspapers do not appear to have been motivated to comment. That it was a competitor who started this rumour, with the intention of doing ‘serious injury’ to Dunsdon’s reputation by suggesting that his charges were outrageous, seems obvious but who it was remains a mystery.

On 16 January 1839 the Sydney Herald, announced the arrival of the Tartar carrying a shipment of ice from Boston.[14] The ship had taken 4 months to reach its destination and the 400 tons of ice loaded on board had dwindled to only 250 by the time the Tartar moored in Sydney. The shipment also included refrigerators (presumably insulated wooden boxes), ice hooks and the wherewithal to construct an icehouse which was eventually erected at Moore’s wharf at Miller’s Point.[15] Various newspapers reported that Dunsdon had bought the entire shipment of ice and the icehouse, surely a significant investment.[16] Ice was sold from the wharf and from Dunsdon’s shop where he also prepared ice confections of one sort or another. But he was not the only one offering Sydneysiders ice cream and water ices. Dunsdon cannot have been best pleased to see Martin Gill, who had only recently moved into new premises adjacent to the Victoria Theatre, also advertising his ices ‘in variety not to be equaled in the Colony’.[17] 

Sydney Herald, 8 February 1839, p. 1.

It is not easy to gauge how successful Dunsdon’s venture was but there are some clues. In March he was advising he had to increase the price of ice – his investment was disappearing before his eyes – and presumably the hot weather, and any enthusiasm for iced drinks had passed.[18] 

Before the end of the year the Dunsdons found themselves mired in another controversy. In November the following advertisement was printed in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser:

WANTED. An experienced NURSE. – No Irish need apply. References to Mrs Dunsdon, confectioner.[19]

On the face of it this was an innocuous, if discriminatory, request for applicants to provide their particulars to Mrs Dunsdon. While the ambiguous wording could be interpreted to suggest that it was Mrs Dunsdon who required the services of a nurse, it was by no means unusual for advertisers to remain anonymous and direct expressions of interest to a convenient and well-known location. Nor was it entirely unknown to stipulate that Irish applicants were not welcome.[20]

But in Mrs Dunsdon’s case this notice began a war of words between the Sydney Gazette, Sydney’s oldest newspaper, and the Australasian Chronicle, the first Catholic newspaper published in Australia, which began life in August 1839. Mr and Mrs Dunsdon, however unwittingly, found themselves involved in an argument about religious freedom and class distinctions.[21]

The first salvo came in the form of an advertisement in the Australasian Chronicle inserted by ‘Patlander’ which included a jibe at the editor of the Sydney Gazette as well as a defence of ‘the Females of Ireland’:

The Irish and if I am not mistaken the liberal and enlightened portion of the English in the nineteenth century must feel this outrage on your character and reputation a most wonton and unprovoked national insult, - and one which I trust the better classes of society will duly appreciate.[22]

In response ‘Civis’, claiming to be the real author of the advertisement, sprang to Mrs Dunsdon’s defence:

Mr Patlander you have made a great mistake entirely in attacking poor Mrs Dunsdon I am the guilty author of the advertisement as to a nurse, and Mrs Dunsdon was but the person to refer to and knew nothing whatever regarding it.[23]

‘Civis’ nonetheless felt justified in discriminating against the Irish ‘brogue’ claiming:

I have every right to indulge such a whim, and, having it, it was better to save worthy persons an application that could not benefit them.

The Gazette also identified ‘Patlander’ as Patrick Reardon, Clerk of the Customs House, describing him as ‘a drunken vagabond’ who had been dismissed from various positions ‘on account of his disreputable character’ which qualified him as ‘a very fit correspondent to the Australian Chronicle’.[24]

‘Patlander’ took one last swipe at the editor of the Gazette and offered a final justification of his stance:

Now let Mr. Dunsdon or any other English gentleman in the Colony, put his hand on his heart and say, would it not rouse his indignation, if such an exception was announced to the females of his country, and in a public advertisement by any Irish female, however high her circumstances may be, who would act so incautious a part?[25]

but the stoush was not over. 

The Australasian Chronicle, under the heading ‘Disgusting bigotry’, next drew public attention to ‘one of those revolting displays of sectarian feeling, which we fear, are all too common among a class of persons, fortunately limited, in this colony.’ The article recounted the story of Mrs Willis, wife of Justice Willis of the Supreme Court, and her refusal to employ a Catholic servant, and concluded:

We publish it, as we shall always do every instance of ‘not keeping faith’ on account of religious differences that comes to our knowledge; and we shall not cease to hold to scorn and contempt such instances of bigotry and intolerance, more particularly when displayed by those whose station in society gives a presumption that they have sufficient education to ‘know better’.[26]

The Sydney Gazette reprinted this article from the ‘Popish Journal’ in full and vindicated Mrs Willis’s stance with the argument that Protestants needed to remember that ‘a papistical servant must visit the confessional’, it was therefore a matter of personal safety to reject the service of Catholic staff lest all their family secrets be divulged.[27] The argument went back and forth for the rest of December with Mrs Dunsdon lumped in with Mrs Willis and other ‘lady bigots’.[28]

Finally Thomas Dunsdon restored his wife’s reputation by a series of advertisements claiming that the author of the original request for a nurse had been ‘Major Christie of Carters Barracks’.[29]The Sydney Herald declared the whole affair very foolish, ‘no person of any education could have been affronted by the advertisement as it stood’ and Major Christie could have had no intention of insulting the Irish.[30] Likewise the Australasian Chronicle conceded that Major Christie was ‘not the man who would intentionally offer insult to Irishmen and we have no doubt our readers will readily acquit him of any such intentions.’[31] Major Christie himself was not moved to make a comment and why it took Dunsdon so long to expose the originator of the advertisement is not explained. While plausible this resolution still leaves a lingering doubt that the original advertisement was a calculated mischief to bring discredit on the Dunsdons. At the time they also had other concerns.

As early as April 1839 it had been announced that Dunsdon was taking over the lease of the inn owned by Mr Harper at Stonequarry (Picton).[32] He continued working in the city but in December was selling up ready for the move. Meanwhile William Blyth, who had been Dunsdon’s superintendent since they had been in business, had married Dunsdon’s sister Hephzibah in October. Blyth remained in Sydney and set himself up in his own confectionery shop in George Street.[33]

This move to Stonequarry was prompted less by the fact the Dunsdons longed for a life outside the city, away from competition with the likes of Martin Gill and wrangling over Irish servants, and more by their need to pay their creditors.[34] How successful the Stonequarry venture was is not clear. The premises were advertised to let in July 1841 and by June 1842 the Dunsdons were back in the city, superintending the Victoria Refreshment Rooms on George Street for the anonymous owner. Despite also having engaged an unrivalled French cook and offering the ‘greatest variety of French, English and Italian dishes’ along with confectionery, biscuits, pastry, preserves, jams, jellies, pickles, sauces and creams ‘not to be equalled in the colony’, by the end of the year the furniture, crockery, cooking utensils and stock of the Victoria Refreshment Rooms were being auctioned.[35]

Thomas Dundson was then able to advise his friends, given that he was presently unoccupied, he was happy to cook dinners in private homes and was available to give lessons in cooking and confectionery.[36] But before long he was running the City Refreshment Rooms in King Street, which were promoted in glowing terms:

In Sydney no house can with Dunsdon’s compare, for moderate prices, most exquisite fare, and the landlord’s polite, kind, attentive care. Apicius himself would deem it a treat to taste Dunsdon’s soups, fish, poultry and meat. His prime roast and biol’d, rich pies, and rare stews are equall’d alone by his soups and ragouts. Fowls, ducks, turkeys, geese, are deliciously dress’d, and his curries possess the true Indian zest; whilst choice Yorkshire hams are temptingly nice, that e’en after dinner you relish a slice. The Turtle! By heavens, Ude never was able to place such tureens on her Majesty’s table. When you enter, the landlord obsequiously stands bowing, hands you the carte, and requests your commands; then o’er the long list your glance rapidly flies, of soups, hashes, curries, ragouts, puddings and pies, geese, fowls, turkeys, ducks, beef, pork, mutton, veal, salmon, whiting, stew’d oysters, bream, collar’d eel – whatever you choose- only just hint your wish, smoking hot in an instant is serv’d up the dish. And when on his dainties you’ve feasted, at will, a mere trifle discharges the landlord’s small bill. Success, then, to Dunsdon! And long may he live. Such sumptuous repasts at such cheap rates to give.[37]

If this venture was Dunsdon at his best, it was also his last hurrah. In May 1843 Martin Gill announced that he had been ‘induced’ to open a new branch of his establishment in Pitt Street, next to the City Theatre in Market Street, which he also called the City Refreshment Rooms.[38] In late July the premises lately occupied by Mr Dunsdon were to let.[39] This may not have been entirely due to the competition from Gill but choosing the same name for his new venture as that already in use by Dunsdon does suggest a deliberate attempt on Gill’s part to confuse and subvert Dundson’s position.[40]

There are few clues to what happened next and how the Dunsdons made ends meet. It is probable that they moved away from Sydney and that Thomas was already unwell. One advertisement, from early 1845, advises that Dunsdon has ‘returned to Sydney’ and is available for catering while Mrs Dunsdon is offering ‘respectable and comfortable board and lodging’ at their address on Elizabeth Street.[41] By February of the following year, they have moved to the corner of Hunter and Castlereagh Streets and Mrs Dunsdon is providing comfortable accommodation in a spacious and dry house with upper and lower balconies.[42] Thomas Dunsdon died on 13 June 1846, ‘after a prolonged and painful illness.’ He was 37.[43]

What had Thomas and Sarah Dunsdon hoped for from their life in Australia? Certainly, their twelve and a half years together in the colony had not brought them success and financial security. How much of this was due to Thomas, to mismanagement and ill-advised business decisions, and how much to the machinations of his rivals and the curious nature of colonial society in the penal era remains open to speculation.

---

[1] Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 24 October 1833, p. 2. ‘Arrivals.’

[2] The Australian, 27 December 1833, p. 1, ‘Advertising.’

[3] The Australian, 4 April 1834, p. 1. The Government Lumber Yard had been located on the southern corner of Bridge and George Streets but moved to a location next to Hyde Park Barracks in 1832.

[4] For Jamison see Brian Fletcher, ‘Sir John Jamison in New South Wales 1814–1844,’ Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 65 (1) (1979, pp. 1–29. For Regentville see SMH 6 December 1847, p. 4. ‘Advertising’ and Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 22 September 2849, p. 1, ‘A visit to Regentville.’

[5] The Australian, 17 March 1835, p. 2, ‘The Fancy Ball at Regent Ville.’

[6] SMH, 16 March 1835, p. 3 ‘The Fete at Regent Ville’; Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 17 March 1835, p. 3, ‘The Fete at Regent Ville.’

[7] Both Bax and Gill were listed as confectioners in the 1828 Census. For Stephen Bax see Ian Dodd, ‘Stephen Bax: Master chef to the Sydney social world’, Royal Australian Historical Society, History, June 2023, pp. 14–17. Martin Gill was the father of Mary Ann Gill whose life has been fictionalised by Kiera Linsey in The Convict’s Daughter (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2017).

[8] See The Australian, 28 May 1830, p. 2 ‘The new license act’. For the full act see http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/legis/nsw/num_act/placa1830n12395/placa1830n12395.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=new%20south%20wales%20liquor

[9] Sydney Monitor, 1 April 1835, p. 3, ‘Advertising.’

[10] The Australian, 3 April 1835, p. 2; see also The Sydney Herald, 6 April 1835, p. 2; Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 30 April 1835, p. 2.

[11] Sydney Monitor, 28 November 1835, p. 2. See Dunsdon also mentioned Sydney Monitor, 9 March 1838, p. 2 and Sydney Times, 12 March 1838, p. 2.

[12] Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertise, 27 July 1837, p. 4.

[13] Sydney Gazette, 25 December 1838, p. 3.

[14] Sydney Herald, 16 January 1839, p. 2. See also Nigel Isaacs, ‘Sydney’s first ice,’ Sydney Journal, 3 (2), 2011, pp. 26–35.

[15] The Australian, 17 January 1839, p. 2; Sydney General Trade List, 19 January 1839, p. 1.

[16] Sydney Gazette, 9 February 1839, p. 2. Mr Dunsdon purchases the whole cargo of ice via the Tartar and the ice house recently erected at Moore’s wharf. Did Thomas Dunsdon buy the entire cargo? Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser 25 January 1839, p. 2 says he has only purchased 200 tons. Ice was being supplied from the ship to anyone who wanted it at Moore’s wharf in late January – Sydney Gazette, 29 January 1839, p. 3. The ice was finally removed from the Tartar and transferred to the icehouse Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 7 February 1839, p. 3.

[17] Gill moves to the Victoria Refreshment Rooms, adjacent to the Royal Victoria Theatre which had opened in March 1838, The Commercial Journal and Advertiser, 26 January 1839, p. 2; Sydney Herald, 8 February 1839, p. 1.

[18] The Sydney Herald, 25 March 1839, p. 3. Dunsdon informs friends that in consequence of the great waste which has taken place in the ice amounting to a full three hundred percent proof of which can be given on inspection that he is under the necessity to raise the price to 6d per pound.

[19] Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 14 November 1839, p. 3; 16 November, p. 1. A slightly different wording ‘A NURSE WANTED. – No Irish need apply at DUNSDON’S Confectionery Warehouse, George Street’ was published in Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 22 November 1839, p. 3.

[20] See Commercial Journal and Advertiser, 5 May 1838, p. 1; Commercial Journal and Advertiser, 5 October 1839, p. 3 also The Australian, 5 October 1839, p. 3.

[21] For more detail about the various controversies and debates in colonial society at the time see Sandra Blair, ‘The felonry and the free? Divisions in colonial society in the penal era’, Labour History, 45, 1983, pp. 1–16; Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, ‘Catholic emancipation and the idea of religious liberty in 1830s New South Wales,’ Australian Journal of Politics and History, 67 (2), 2021, pp. 193–207.

[22] Australasian Chronicle, 19 November 1839, p. 4, ‘Advertising.’ 

[23] Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, 21 November 1839, p. 2.

[24] ‘Pat Lander’ was also identified as the alias of Patrick Reardon in the Australian, 21 December 1839, p. 1 ‘Advertising.’

[25] Australasian Chronicle, 22 November 1839, p. 4. 

[26] Australasian Chronicle, 10 December 1839, p. 1.

[27] Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 12 December 1839, p. 2, ‘The lady of Mr Justice Willis. Exclusive dealing.’ 

[28] See Australasian Chronicle, 17 December 1839, p. 1, ’Letter to the editor’; Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 19 December 1839, p. 2 “creed’ and 26 December 1839, p. 3 ‘Original correspondence’; Australasian Chronicle, 31 December 1839, p. 1 ‘To the editor.’

[29] The Colonist 4 January 1840, p. 3, 8 January 1840, p. 3, 15 January 1840, p. 1. Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 3 January 1840, p. 3, 6 January 1840, p. 4, 8 January 1840, p. 4, 10 January 1840, p. 4; The Sydney Herald, 3 January 1840, p. 3, 6 January 1840, p. 3, 8 January 1840, p. 3; Australian, 9 January 1840, p. 3, 11 January 1840, p. 1. For Major Christie see SMH, 24 March 1873, p. 2, ‘Major W. H. Christie’; birth of a daughter Sydney Monitor, 12 July 1839, p. 3; appointed to Hyde Park Barracks, The Australian, 23 November 1839, p. 3.

[30] Sydney Herald, 6 January 1840, p. 2, ‘Domestic intelligence.’

[31] Australasian Chronicle, 7 January 1840, p. 2, ‘Letter to the editor.’

[32] The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 11 April 1839, p. 3.

[33] The Colonist, 5 October 1839, p. 2 ‘Family notices’, Miss H. Dunsdon marries Mr William Blyth on 1 October, The Colonist, 25 December 1839, p. 3 ‘Advertising’, Mr Blyth, superintendent of Mr Dunsdon’s Establishment for the last seven years, begs respectfully to announce that he is about to commence business for himself, in the shop opposite the treasury, George Street.

[34] SMH, 8 January 1840, p. 1. Notice is herby given that by an indenture of assignment of this date Thomas Dunstan Dunsdon of Sydney, confectioner, consigns all his estate and effects to Thomas Goodall Gore of Sydney, merchant, Samuel Furneau Mann, grocer and Henry Peekham grocer upon trust for his creditors. 3 January 1840. See also SMH 1 April 1840, p. 2. With Mr Dunsdon’s assent and to prevent losses to future creditors of Mr Dunsdon through ignorance of the fact I hereby give notice that I hold a mortgage and other sureties on all the effects now in the George Inn a considerable portion of which was purchased by me from the Sheriff at sale, under execution, and I further give notice that since that sale I have sent him various articles of furniture, sundry other effects, horses, etc. and sent them to his residence Stonequarry. James Templeton. Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 11 June 1840, p. 3: In the Estate of T. D. Dunsdon, a dividend of ten shillings in the pound will be paid, on or after the 18th instant to all creditors in the above estate who have previously signed the trust deed and proved their debts to the satisfaction of the trustees. Commercial Journal and Advertiser, 25 July 1840, p. 3, Instructions from trustees of Mr T. D. Dunsdon to sell five allotments of the Five Dock Farm. SMH, 26 September 1842, p. 2 Insolvent. Certificate of discharge granted The Australian, 8 March 1844, p. 3.

[35] Sydney Herald, 16 July 1841, p. 3. George’s Inn, Stonequarry to let. Advertised by Templeton.

The Sydney Herald, 11 June 1842, p. 3, Advertising the Victoria Refreshment Rooms. ‘The Epicure will be accommodated at the Victoria Refreshment Rooms opposite the Bank of Australasia, with one of the greatest luxuries of life. A good lunch or dinner. The proprietor begs most respectfully to inform his numerous patrons that he has procured the superintendence of Mr and Mrs Dunsdon late of that establishment which, adjoining the present, for many years had been so liberally patronised by the Haut Ton of Australia.’ For auction see The Australian, 12 December 1842, p. 3.

[36] SMH, 13 February 1843, p. 3.

[37] SMH, 6 June 1843, p. 3. Impromptu written by a gentleman immediately after dining at Dunston’s Restaurant, King St. East.

[38] SMH, 22 May 1843, p. 1. In Australasian Chronicle, 30 May 1843, p. 3 their advertisements appear one after the other.

[39] SMH, 27 July 1843, p. 3. Advertised to let those premises lately occupied by Mr Dunsdon as the City Refreshment Rooms. This may also have been a retaliation against the naming of the Victoria Refreshment Rooms which could have been confused with Gill’s establishment next to the Victoria Theatre in Pitt Street, which was usually referred to as Martin Gill’s Victoria Confectionery Establishment.

[40] Gill’s tenure at his City Refreshment Rooms appears to have been short lived. By August he was advertising that he had moved from Pitt Street and taken over the Donnybrook Hotel, SMH, 21 August 1843, p. 3.

[41] SMH, 13 March 1845, p. 3; SMH, 28 April 1845, p. 1.

[42] SMH, 17 February 1846, p. 4; 24 April 1846, p. 4.

[43] SMH, 17 June 1846, p. 4.