Nothing but the Pub

       With his German-born wife, Sophie, Thomas Holt arrived in Sydney on the Helvellyn in 1842 after being inspired by reading a German translation of Dunmore Lang’s writings on the new colony. He was the son of a wool merchant and he hit the ground running, soon becoming a wool-buyer, magistrate, financier and board member of companies from Railways to gold mining.        By the time he was 44 he’d made a big enough pile to retire from business with land interests which peaked at over 12 thousand square kms – just a bit bigger than the entire county of Yorkshire where he was born.        But retired indolence wasn’t his gig so in 1856 he successfully stood for election to the first Legislative Assembly and became colonial treasurer. In 1865 he was accused by a political rival of, er, of the expediency of voting early and voting often. The charges didn’t stick, Holt sued his accuser for malicious prosecution and a...

  It was robbery that brought me to this fascinating pub in the inner west of Sydney.  More specifically it was Robbery Under Arms (the book). And if I’m going to truthful it was more the book’s author, Thomas Alexander Brown –whose nom-de-plume was Rolf Boldrewood – who sparked the trip.  See, I’m researching our biggest and our more colourful fraudsters, pimps, bludgers, thieves, con-artists, liars and urgers and the pubs of their lives. And Brown - who later added a final ‘e’ because it sounded a tad more aristocratic and befitting of the magistrate whom he became – deserves his spot. If only for one of our great but little-known literary thefts.  Just briefly (because I’ll be doing a separate yarn on this) in 1894 Boldrewood asked an aspiring young writer, Louise Becke to send him some background info from his years of travels in the south Pacific. Then he asked for more details, for which he paid Becke a pittance and which Becke assumed were to be used to add ...