THE Sea Breeze Hotel was licensed on 10 April, 1893.
Its forerunner was the Bay View Hotel, which was operated as a guest house on Fly Point under a license held by Mr Walter Glover in 1891.
Walter Glover was the first white child to tread on Nelson Bay beach, according to N E Haug.
“He was picked out of the boat by his father and placed on the beach”, Haug wrote.
Mr Glover found religion and moved his family a short distance away from the sinful pub precinct, handing over the license to Mr Alfred Dent, who became insolvent just a year later.
The next licensee was Mr Henry Thompson, who realised that the centre of the town had moved to the Fishermen’s Wharf area.
He bought a small home near the wharf and built a new residential hotel nearby, moving the Bay View to the rise above the waterfront. He changed the name to the Sea Breeze in April 1894 and held the license until 1899.
Australia was a young, growing nation and the Port Stephens region was developing at a fast pace, with locals keen to work and contribute.
Its fishermen found a waterway and surrounding coastline virtually untouched as, apart from the Worimi clans, no one had ever fished the waters.
There seemed no limit to what could be achieved.
Progress, however, proved to be far more difficult than first thought.
By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE
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