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Chockerup Inn

Chockerup Inn
Map
General information
TypeInn, hotel
Location34°50′4″S 117°44′28″E
CountryAustralia
Opened1854

Chockerup Inn (also known as Chorkerup Inn) was a roadside inn on the mail coach route between Albany and Perth that was built in 1854 and closed in 1889 when the Great Southern Railway opened.

Establishment

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The Inn was established as a simple wattle and daub hut in 1854 when the mail route between Albany and Perth began running[1]. The mail coach was drawn by horses, and Chockerup Inn was the first place to change horses or have a meal after leaving Albany, being a couple of hours journey or around 15 miles from the port town.[2][3]

1870s

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Photo of iron gates with an old brick building in the background.
One of the landlords of Chockerup was Joseph Nelson, whose name is inscribed in gilt letters on the gate at Fremantle Prison.

In the 1870s, Joseph Nelson, one of the Sappers and Miners who came to Fremantle in 1851 to help build Fremantle Prison and other public works, took over Chockerup Inn[4]. He was the blacksmith who led the execution of the iron gates at Fremantle Prison in 1855, and it would have been useful to have a blacksmith on the road to help with shoeing horses and repairing coaches and wagons.

1880s

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In 1884 James and Emma Gorman took over[5], and they ran the Inn until it closed in 1889 when the railway opened and travellers stopped passing by Chockerup. The Inn thrived in this period, with many visitors, and Emma Gorman provided people with generous meals at any time of day, as reported both in the local newspaper[6] and by visiting dignitaries like the Lady Brassey, a best-selling travel author of the time[7] (see p 241 and 249). Lord Brassey noted that they gave the horses a feed at Chockerup Inn[8].

After closing

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After the railway opened in 1889 Chockerup Inn was abandoned due to lack of traffic. By 1928 only a few bricks remained.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Geocaching. "Slow Coach - Chorkerup". www.geocaching.com. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  2. ^ "NOTES OF A TRIP-ALBANY TO MARTINUP". Australian Advertiser. 6 June 1890. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  3. ^ Bulbeck, Dora (1876). "The story of Chorkerup Inn". Albany writes. 11: 78–79.
  4. ^ "Joseph Nelson I Fremantle Prison Characters". Fremantle Prison. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  5. ^ "No Title". Albany Mail and King George's Sound Advertiser. 18 March 1884. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  6. ^ "FROM PERTH TO ALBANY BY THE OLD ROUTE". Australian Advertiser. 12 January 1891. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  7. ^ Brassey, Annie Allnutt (1879). A voyage in the 'Sunbeam', our home on the ocean for eleven months. Harvard University. London, Longmans Green and Co.
  8. ^ Thomas Allnutt Brassey (Earl), Thomas Brassey Brassey (Earl). Sixteen months' travel, 1886-87. Harvard University. Printed by Spottiswoode, 1888.
  9. ^ "By The Way". Albany Advertiser. 19 January 1928. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
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