Eltham Cemetery - Artistic Recollections Booklet

21 / 72

Benjamin Oliver Wallis, who was a prominent
Eltham resident originally from Cornwall was
engaged by Richard Warren in 1853 to build the
Eltham Hotel and it opened in 1854 or 1855.
In 1858 Warren fell into financial difficulties and
had to sell the hotel. Benjamin Wallis bought the
hotel and obtained a publican’s licence in 1861.
On 16th September 1886 Wallis sold the hotel to
Christopher Watson (Snr). Watson died in 1887
and the hotel passed to his son Christopher
Watson (Jr) who owned it for many years. The
bareheaded publican Christopher Watson can be
seen standing behind the cart in this photograph
which was taken in about 1902.
According to the Victorian Heritage database,
the Eltham Hotel, formerly Watson’s Hotel, is
historically significant because a hotel has stood
on the site since 1887. The hotel became a
meeting place for Eltham’s artists, intellectuals
and mud brick builders, who were developing a
distinctive local lifestyle.
The plant combined with this image is the native
creeper, Clematis aristata, which is sometimes
known as ‘travellers joy’.
HotelAND CLEMATIS
ARISTATA
PHOTOGRAPH
Eltham Hotel,1902
Shire of Eltham Pioneers
Photograph collectionYarra
Plenty Regional Library Service
in partnership with the Eltham
District Historical Society
INFORMATION
Marshall,Alan.
Pioneers and Painters: One hundred
years of Eltham and its Shire (1971)
BenjaminWallis and
the Eltham Hotel
accessed at https://elthamhistory.
Eltham Hotel
accessed at