1857 The Irish Town Races

	1857 : The Irish Town Races
	A race meeting at the Preston Alms Hotel in 1858 attracted rather more attention, but some recent research reveals that it was not the first to be held within the boundaries of the old City of Preston, although you would need to have known a little of the earliest history of the district to identify the locality … .

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One of the earliest editions of Bell's Life in Victoria published on 31 January 1857 carried a prominent front-page advertisement for the "OAKHILL RACES, IRISH TOWN to be held at the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock Hotel, Plenty Road".

The first reference to the premises in “Cole’s Index of Hotels”, a comprehensive history of hotels in Victoria was compiled during the 1930s and 1940s by Robert Kerr Cole from surviving licensing records, post office directories and newspaper clippings lists Charles Burrell, an ex-convict, as the licensee or publican in 1854,but there is some thought it may have existed from .

Despite the contemporary advertisement, Cole used both of the accepted names of “Preston” and the “Rose, Shamrock and Thistle” in his classification. The hotel has been reconstructed at least three times, but has always occupied the same site in Plenty Road just below the crest of the hill and in the nineteenth century was famous as a stopover for bullock trains and travellers heading for the Plenty River farming settlements and gold fields.

Almost as well known as the hotel were its immediate neighbours. The Doolan family's farm and blacksmith works were a landmark until early in the 20^th century, while on the other side, Harry Bouverie's cab service provided regular transport for locals heading into Melbourne.

Irishtown (or Irish Town) was the original name used by what is thought to have been the district's first settler, Samuel Jeffrey. The Irish connotation seems to have been unacceptable to a group of followers of the Baptist Church, including Messrs. Wood, Clinch and Tyler and they changed the name to Preston, the name of a village (Preston-On-Tees) in Sussex that they visited on church picnics.

Earlier histories of the district suggest the group wanted to call the area "Brighton", the town from which they originated, but were thwarted because the name had been taken several years earlier by what was basically a holiday resort to the south of Melbourne. The evidence for this claim in purely anecdotal, and in fact, it appears to have been another early resident of the area that coveted the Brighton name.

From as early as 1841, just five years after Melbourne was established, the "Port Phillip Directory" was published every two and as well as presenting a wealth of community and commercial intelligence, also included an alphabetic listing (probably drawn from postal records) of most of the people and events that mattered in Melbourne.

Obviously evidence that the names of both Preston and Northcote were still some way off comes from the 1847 directory. Edward Wood is described as "farmer, Merri Creek", the Pender family from the part of Thornbury still bearing the name were listed as "Darebin Creek". Several other families later significant in the Preston district were listed as at the Plenty River, but it was Alfred Hurlestone, the owner of a flour mill in Mill Park who caused some surprise, being listed as at "Little Brighton".

Later anecdotes from Cr. John Clinch suggest the change to Preston was made at a meeting in the parlor at Woods Store in Regent, but there has never been anything recorded as the actual date of the change.

Despite the romantic notion of the area being more or less commonly known as Irishtown, there is no surviving reference to the name other than the advertisements for the race meeting.

Another race meeting in 1858 was clearly identified both in advertisements and later press reports as “at the Preston Arms Hotel in Preston", and the use of Samuel Jeffrey's "Irish Town" for the earlier Oakhill races either suggests the name change came in the intervening eighteen months or the two hamlets still regarded themselves as separate settlements.

Although Burrell is listed as the first publican, the most influential in the hotel’s early history was James Smith, who held the license from 1855 until his death in 1867, a rather remarkable length of time in an era when most hotels changed hands every couple of years. (One early publican of the Preston Arms, Graham Muirfield was hauled before the Fitzroy Court in 1863 on a charge of attempted suicide).

The Oakhill races were rather more ambitious than the later venture, being scheduled over two days, the Thursday and Friday of the following week.

For the Thursday, the events scheduled were a Pony Race of £10 over one and a half miles, the Farmer's Purse of £25 for horses " the bona fide property of farmers and to be ridden by their owners ", the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock Stakes of 20 guineas at weight for age and to be run in heats, and a Maiden Stakes of £10 for horses which had never won an advertised stake.

The Stewards for the meeting were Henry Buck and J. Hall, the Judge, Hugh Sinclair, and John Little acted as Clerk of the Course.

Bell's Life on Saturday, February 14 noted " a very good quality of horse" and a " good number of people from the rural districts and some from the metropolis, although we are sorry to say that for the best part the farmers left their ladies behind

The Stakes were won by George Watson's "Caledonia", who survived a protest after another rider claimed Watson had ridden inside one of the posts marking the course, described as "rather rough and the horses in starting had a pretty severe hill to go up which tested their gameness &nbs; The stewards were also forced to adjudicate on the Maiden Stakes, the rider of one of the also-rans claiming the winning horse had in fact collected a purse at a meeting at Ivanhoe some three years previously.

Perhaps because of pressing deadlines, the report on the Friday meeting was rather more brief, other than to suggest the weather "was rather warmer ".

The Friday races included the Publican's Purse of 20 guineas for horses that had not won that sum in a single purse, a Steeplechase, twice round the course (but no distance indicated), the Hurry Scurry for horses that were "demonstrably hacks ", and a Consolation Stakes of £10 for all beaten horses.

Given most of the stake money distributed came from the entry fees, the unnamed organizers of the meeting, perhaps uncertain of the likely public response hedged their bets a little when advertising the event, adding the rider that " a minimum of four horses must be entered, else no public money added" (this was fairly common practice for privately organised meetings)

Some hotels tried to run their local meetings on an annual basis, but there is no sign of any further meetings at the “Oakhill course at Irish Town”.

The Bell’s Life article is the first (and one of only two) sighted that actually used the old name of "Irish Town" and it may be that it was at the instigation of James Smith or his family, and the connection to the Emerald Isle continued after his passing.

After Smith’s death, The Argus noted the funeral leaving from the Rose, Shamrock and Thistle and “ John Emery appointed as agent for the estate of James Smith, Irishtown”.

James Phelan who was born at Ballyragget, County Kilkenny, Ireland, purchased the hotel and remained the publican until 1888.

Phelan came to the colony in July 1851 and like many new arrivals, first tried his luck on the gold fields. After five weeks digging and with nothing to show for his efforts, Phelan gave up mining and walked back to Melbourne, occupying eight days in the journey. He became the caterer to the Richmond police depot, a position he retained for fourteen years before purchasing the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle.

1857 : The Irish Town Races