South Bourke and Mornington Journal and the Motor Club Hotel, Cranbourne

Exciting news - Trove, the National Library of Australia digitised newspaper resource, has now added issues of the South Bourke and Mornington Journal to its content. It's a great resource and is currently on-line from 1902 to 1920. The Journal has lots of local news relevant to local and family historians in the Casey Cardinia region - its masthead boasts that it circulates throughout Dandenong, Berwick, Pakenham, Koo-Wee-Rup, Clyde, Lang Lang, Dalmore, Yannathan and Monomeith amongst other locations in the County of Mornington.

I came across some advertisements for the Motor Club Hotel in Cranbourne (or Kellys as it is more commonly known). The first Hotel on the site was the Mornington Hotel built around 1860 by Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch. The Cranbourne Road Board met in this building.

The Mornington Hotel, above. Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch below. In The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire , Niel Gunson writes that Thomas Gooch was a mate on the Sacramento. Elizabeth (nee Minister) had also been on the same ship, which was wrecked near the Heads, Port Phillip Bay. They both lost all of their possessions and married each other in 1854.

By 1912, at least, it was known as the Motor Club Hotel, which may have been related to the birth of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria in Tooradin or may have reflected the fact that Cranbourne was a popular destination for early motor car excursions.

South Bourke and Mornington Journal , Thursday January 18, 1912, page 1
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66179912

The Kelly family, who were also licensees of the Cranbourne Hotel (which was situated where Greg Clydesdale Square in High Street is now located) took over the license of the Motor Club Hotel in June 1919, as this article and advertisement in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal attests (see below).

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66196239

South Bourke and Mornington Journal, Thursday, June 19, 1919.
The article, above, was on page 2 and the advertisement, below, was on page 1.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6365244

The existing Motor Club Hotel, was built around 1926 and is listed on the City of Casey Heritage Database , which describes it a s a prominent local land mark and of historical and social significance.

The Motor Club Hotel, taken in the late 1920s or 1930s.

Photo credits: the picture of the Mornington Hotel is from The Good County: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson. The photograph of Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch and Motor Club Hotel photograph (immediately above) are from the Cranbourne Shire Historical Society collection.