Post Cards of Berwick

In this post we will look at three Post Card views of High Street in Berwick. The card, immediately below, shows the north side of High Street in the 1920s, looking east. The Berwick Hotel, also known as the Border Hotel, was established in 1857 by Robert Bain. It was the venue for the first Police Court in Berwick and the Berwick District Roads Board was also formed in this building in 1862. The earliest section of the building, the triangular single storey part, dates from 1857. The double storey sections were added in 1877 and 1887. The Bain family owned the hotel until 1909, with Susan Bain taking over as licensee after her husband's death in 1887. At the time of this photograph, it is advertised as being under new Management, with Byrnes as the licensee.

Further up the hill, you can Loveridge's store, which still operates in Berwick. Alfred Ellis Loveridge and his wife Emma (nee Crean) operated a store in Peel Street from around 1912. This was a continuation of the Crean family store, which had been established by Emma's father, John, in 1877. The store moved to High Street in the 1920s.

This is the back of the Post Card, sent in 1924 from Maxie to
his 'dear Ma'.

The Post Card, above, was recently donated to us by Mrs Audrey Stokes. Mrs Stokes had taken a holiday in the area in 1955 and purchased this Post Card as a souvenir. It shows the north side of High Street, looking west. At the top are the Tudor shops built in 1937 by Sir Sidney Sewell (1880-1949) and designed by architects Ballantyne & Wilson. Sir Sidney was a doctor, and a lecturer on the central nervous system. After World War One he looked after soldiers suffering from 'shell shock'. He later took an interest in the treatment of tuberculosis and established a service to care for patients. With Sir Richard Stawell he established the Association of Physicians of Australasia in 1930, which later became the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. An early tenant of the Tudor Shops was the Blue Plate Tea Room and travelling library. Jan's Tea house occupied one of the shops in this photograph.


This Post Card is from the 1970s or early 1980s. It shows the Hotel, the Tudor shops and the War Memorial, erected in the 1920s.


The information on Sir Sidney Sewell comes from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.