The Brothers Mulcahy – a family story

MULCAHY BROTHERS
Premier Hotel keepers,
FREMANTLE, PERTH, AND BOULDER CITY

As Licensed Victuallers, the firm of Messrs. Mulcahy Bros is famed throughout Western Australia. They have been associated with the colony almost since the goldfields were discovered. The well-known and popular gentlemen are natives of Tipperary, the premier county of Ireland. They arrived in Queensland about 14 years ago and began their successful colonial career in that colony by entering into the hotel business, which for seven years they followed with success. The rising fame of W.A. as a gold-producing colony proved very attractive to the young Irishmen and, bidding adieu to Queensland, we next find them starting from Perth, W.A., to prospect the then little known district of Nannine, where they suffered many hardships, but were very successful in the collecting of such worthless things as nuggets. Mr. M. Mulcahy made a trip to Perth for recuperation, but on hearing three days after his arrival of the famous Bayley finds he proceeded to Coolgardie, where he obtained a good-paying claim on Potato Flat, wiring to his brother Dan to join him, the latter, with four comrades, made the first party who crossed from Cue, on the Murchison, to Coolgardie, and old pioneers can easily realise the hardships of such an undertaking.

Daniel and Michael Mulcahy

After six months on the Coolgardie fields, where they succeeded in gaining a large amount of “dust,” the younger brother returned to the seaboard where, in company with Mr. Byrne, he purchased the well known Commercial Hotel, Fremantle, which was carried on under the new management in a most profitable and satisfactory manner. In the meantime the elder brother, “Mick,” was prospecting and fossicking all over the auriferous belt from Coolgardie to Mount Margaret, Mount Cummins, Mount Black, Lake Darlot, Kurnalpi, and Siberia fields, on the latter of which he did a veritable perish, and for weeks in the dry country, it was necessary to pack the water 45 miles for horses and men. During this time he steadily kept accumulating the yellow metal, but tiring of a life for which anyone would get disgruntled, he joined his brother again, and purchasing the interest of Mr. Byrne in the business for a large sum, the Mulcahy Brothers set out on that career of prosperity in hotelkeeping which they have since so well maintained.

John Mulcahy

The rapidly growing fame of Boulder City caused the young speculators to turn their attention to that golden centre, and the result of their investigation was the erection of one of the finest hotels in the colony, The Grand Hotel in Boulder City, at a cost all borne by themselves of .£10,000, and which has been admirably managed since by Mr. Byrne, their brother-in-law, and their faith in the potentiality of the goldfields is so strong that we find them now erecting another large hotel in Boulder City, The Shamrock. The Terminus Hotel, Fremantle, has also been acquired by these lively young men, who have surrounded themselves with relatives who serve them faithfully and well. They are largely interested in house and land property in West Australia and are known and respected by all classes of the community for the uprightness of character, honesty, and integrity, and their purse is ever open to the needy and distressed.

The Shamrock Hotel Boulder

Mr John Cranley – Licensee of the Shamrock Hotel Boulder – Brother in law to the Mulcahy Brothers

Mr. Michael Mulcahy paid a visit to the old country in 1897 and married one of “green Erin’s girls,” Miss Cranley, eldest daughter of Mr. Timothy Cranley, Dunhill, Co Tipperary. Mr. Daniel. Mulcahy married about three years ago to Miss Mary Fay, a daughter of old and respected Fremantle residents. Mr. Daniel Mulcahy and Mrs. Mulcahy, parents of the subjects of this story, sold their hotel business Tipperary, some 18 months ago to join their children in the West, and are perfectly happy in the change. Mr. Daniel Mulcahy Snr is a typical Irish gentleman, tall, straight, and muscular, with a handsome, intellectual face, and who is never happier than when relating some story or tale of Irish interest.