The Bulletin Hotel at Yudamindra
I was drifting in the drizzle past the Cecil in the Strand
Which, I’m told is very tony – and its front looks very grand
And somehow fell a-thinking of a pub I know so well
Of a place in West Australia called The Bulletin Hotel
Just a little six-room shanty built of corrugated tin
And all around blazing desert – land of camels, thirst and sin
And the landlord is “the spider” – Western diggers know him well
Charlie Webb – Ah, there you have it! – of the Bulletin Hotel
‘Tis a big soft hearted spider in a land where life is grim
And a web of great good-nature that brings worn-out flies to him
‘Tis the club of many lost souls in the wide Westralian hell
And the stage of many Mitchells is The Bulletin Hotel
But the swagman, on his uppers, pulls an undertakers mug
And he leans across the counter and he breathes in Charlie’s lug
Tale of thirst and of misfortune. Charlie knows it, and – ah, well!
But it’s very bad for business at The Bulletin Hotel
“What’s a drink or two?” says Charlie, “and you can’t refuse a feed”
But there many a drink unpaid for, many sticks of borrowed weed
And the poor old spineless bummer and the broken-hearted swell
knows that they are sure of tucker at The Bulletin Hotel
There’s the liquor and the licence and the “carriage” and the rent
And the sea or grave ‘twixt Charlie and the fivers he had lent
And I’m forced to think in sorrow, for I know the country well
That the end will be the bailiff in The Bulletin Hotel
But he’ll pack up in a hurry and he’ll seek a cooler clime
If I make a rise in England and I get out there in time
For a mate o’ mine is Charlie and I stayed there for a spell
And I own more than a jingle to The Bulletin Hotel
But there’s lots of graft between us, there are many miles of sea
So, if you should drop on Charlie, just shake hands with him for me
Say I think the bush less lonely than the great town where I dwell
And – grander than the Cecil is The Bulletin Hotel
Sketch of Lawson and Webb from “When I was King” 1905
The original manuscript of ‘The Bulletin Hotel’ was found in July 2003 in Perth, in a house previously the home of past Premier, Phil Collier, who was a great admirer of Lawson. The poem features Lawson’s friend, Charlie Webb. Webb did not open his “Bulletin Hotel” until 1900 but he ran a few Goldfields pubs and Bertha Lawson (Lawson’s wife) herself would return to the Bulletin Hotel in 1905 after her separation from Lawson, to work for Charlie Webb.
Lawson wrote the poem in London in 1901 when he was feeling homesick. Charlie would have no doubt written to Lawson telling him of the opening of his latest pub, The Bulletin Hotel at Yudamindra in the WA Goldfields. Lawson would have reflected on Charlie’s good nature and was sure to have him in mind when he wrote “A Bush Publicans Lament” and “The Lost Soul’s Hotel”
from the book ‘Into the West” When Australia’s bush poet Henry Lawson came to Western Australia’ Featuring stories by Henry Lawson and other writers in Western Australia 1890-1930 Eduted by Chris Holyday (available from Hesperian Press)
Moya Sharp
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Thank you Moya Sharp for your post on the Bulletin Hotel. I am doing a History subject which touches on Henry Lawson. These papers say Lawson only went to the outback once in 1892 to Bourke and Hungerford. I knew he also went to W.A. and must have gone up country to encounter this hotel. Hard to find exact dates for his visit but I assume it was on his 1896 trip to Perth, although the 1889-1890 trip to Albany would be more consistent with the. time Charlie Webb ran the Bulletin Hotel. Charlie Webb features in my family history. His wife, Ella Fleming, was the sister of my great grandmother.
Dear Ann I have come across Charlie Wenns name a few times in regards to his links with several other hotels in WA. The verse is from the following book.http://www.hesperianpress.com/index.php/booklist/2011-06-16-08-07-49/i-titles/170-into-the-west