Life and death on the Sydney tourist trail

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 10:26 — Anonymous by Ian Lloyd Neubauer When you buy a
170-year old hotel and start digging around, you're bound to come across a
few surprises. That's what happened to Shlomi Bonet while unearthing an old
landfill at his heritage-listed property in Breadalbane, a small village
southwest of Sydney that just happens to make a fine day trip out of the
city. Standing on the Old South Road -- the first thoroughfare linking Sydney
and Melbourne -- the Breadalbane Hotel was an alehouse, post office and
staging post for Cobb and Co, the legendary 19th-century stagecoach company.
The hotel's license to serve alcohol was temporarily revoked in 1865 after
the then-publican Thomas Lodge was charged with harboring "The Gentleman
Bushranger" Ben Hall, whose gang spent the night there after holding up
another hotel down the road at the town of Collector. What lies beneath?
Thousands of bottles were consumed at the Breadalbane Hotel until it was
converted into a homestead a century ago, most of which were thrown into
landfills that now pockmark the property. Over time, some of this glass has
found its way to the surface, creating a colonial-era hazard for the current
owner's young family.read more