Licensees
1863-1864 – James Singer
1864-1867 – Henry Sherriff Potter1New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832-1900), Friday 10 May 1867 (No.75), p 1169
Location
Redbank, then Newtown
In the News
The Araluen Star reports ‘On Friday last, the 2 October 1863, at her residence, Redbank, Araluen2Araluen Star and Miners Right (1863-1964), Saturday 10 October 1863, p 2, the wife of Mr. James Singer, of a son.’
The Araluen Spring Race meeting was scheduled to be held 6, 7, and 8 October 1863, and advertised in the Araluen Star 3Araluen Star and Miners Right (1863- 1964), Supplement, Saturday 26 September 1863, page 2, which details the ‘The Stewards for the race – Messrs John Hogan [Free Section Inn], James Armstrong [Peace and Plenty], Frederick Scantlebury [Rose and Crown], Henry Cummins, Dennis Kennedy[Sapling Point], Alexander Waddell, Patrick Egan [Poor Man’s Inn], Mr [James] Munro [Emu Inn] and James Singer[Criterion]’. Bells adds when reporting on the Court case in November of that year ‘The whole of the stewards, with two exceptions, are innkeepers at Araluen. Seven out of nine are innkeepers‘. 4Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Chronicle (NSW : 1860 – 1870), Saturday 28 November 1863, page 4
In what became known as the Araluen Race Case in 1863, the Echuca and Moama Chronicle 5Pastoral Times and Echuca and Moama Chronicle (Deniliquin, NSW : 1863 – 1866), Saturday 28 November 1863, page 3 summarised that ‘An action was brought last week by Miss Dickson nominally against … stewards of the Araluen races, to recover the sum of £30, the amount of the Consolation Stakes, won by her horse Kildare, on the third day of the meeting, but Mr. F. A. Cooper, lately Gold Commissioner at Araluen, and Dr. Wilson’s opponent at the last election, was regarded as virtually the defendant.‘ ‘The jury had retired for a very short time when they came in with a verdict for the plaintiff for the amount claimed’ detailed the Empire, adding 6Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 24 November 1863, page 3 upon the verdict being announced, the crowded court ‘required all the exertion’s of the police and the remonstrance’s of his Honor to keep down the manifestations of satisfaction therewith.’
The Araluen Star and Miners Right newspaper (Issue 12, Saturday, 26 December 1863) announced the program for the scheduled opening night of the Criterion Theatre, Redbank, promising the greatest attraction ever presented in Araluen, to be held 4 January 1864. On the 23 January 1864, the Braidwood News 7Braidwood News and Southern Goldfields General Advertiser (NSW: 1864), Saturday 23 January 1864, page 3 reported on the opening of the Criterion Theatre on ‘Tuesday evening last, this new theatre opened for the first time. The performance were on the whole, very successful and …the house was well attended. The proceeds were for the benefit of the Braidwood Hospital. A very handsome sum … has been netted for that establishment’.
The monster (political) meeting for Mr Parkes took place at Araluen, in Singer’s Criterion Theatre, the Empire reported8Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850-1875), Saturday 30 January 1864, p 2 in January 1864. There were about 160 persons present who gathered to discuss ‘should Henry Parkes would be returned as their representative’. Dr Alley who was also present, proposed an alternative view.
Dated 18 January [1864], a For Sale advertisement was placed in the Braidwood News 9Braidwood News and Southern Goldfields General Advertiser (NSW: 1864), Wednesday 2 March 1864, page 3 by James Singer for the ‘large, spacious, and central Hotel, at Redbank, known as Singer’s Criterion Hotel, [with a] spacious Ball Room, (the largest in Araluen), at the end of which is erected a little stage, and licensed as the Criterion Theatre’. (See above at top).
In March 1864, an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald, titled ‘Notice to the Theatrical Profession in 1864’10Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954), Wednesday 30 March 1864, p 8 was placed, seeking two respectable men as Comic Singers, and a Lady Vocalist, wanted for the Criterion Hotel and Theatre, Redbank, Araluen.
A notice was published in May 186511New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832-1900), Tuesday 9 May 1865 (No.88), p 1009 regarding the Insolvent Estate of James Singer, of Araluen, in the District of Braidwood, innkeeper, lately residing at Wide Bay, in the Colony of Queensland, … hotelkeeper.
The notice of insolvency was published in the Empire for James Singer Publican, Newtown, in 1865, and states12Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850-1875), Saturday 16 September 1865, p 6 ‘the public house and dwelling known as the Criterion Hotel, containing the largest and best decorated ball and bar rooms on the Gold-fields, together with three sitting and four bed rooms kitchen, and stables, &c, erected on a large and beautifully situated allotment of land substantially and securely fenced, a part of which is divided off and cultivated as a kitchen garden for the hotel. These premises were created within the last twelve months, with the only object being to have a home second to none on the Araluen [goldfields]. The land is held under a tenantry, at £4 a month from the proprietor of the Gold-fields, H.C. Burnell Esq., whose consent has been obtained to a sale of the premises to any purchaser of known respectability. Rent is paid up to October 1. The Auctioneer begs to inform that the house is a substantial and well-finished weatherboard building, with A1 galvanised-iron roof, and situated on high ground in the most populous and business part of the goldfields‘.
A monster meeting was held 22 January 1867, at the Criterion Hotel, Newtown 13Peter C. Smith. The Clarke Gang. Outlawed, Outcast and Forgotten. Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, NSW. 2018 p 451, 14Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842-1954), Saturday 26 January 1867, p 5, respecting the Jinden murders, at which about 500 hundred persons were present.