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In which we discover the Malting Shovel Tavern may not have been a place to take the kiddies
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There are a number of stories about how Kissing Point got its name. The most popular revolve around the boats that navigated up and down Parramatta River. One version says it was the furthest up the river heavily-laden boats could go before their hulls “kissed” the sandy bottom. The other version claims it was because the boats used to “kiss” the point as they went by it. If you look at maps of the region, that latter explanation doesn’t seem to pan out as there is plenty of space for ships to navigate around the point without having to get so close to the shore.
Another tale is that Governor Hunter would take his wife up there for picnics, during which he would steal a kiss. There’s also the darker origin that the region was so named as a delicate reference to the prostitutes that plied their trade at the point. As much as I like the darker story, that’s unlikely to be the origin as the name “Kissing Point” appears while the area is sparsely populated and lacking in many male customers for the ladies. However, it could have served as later reinforcement for the name.
Not long after it opened the Malting Shovel Tavern was one of the places these women would go to work, seeing as how it was a meeting point for men coming and going along the river. It was also a place known for its criminal element, according to Reverend Samuel Marsden’s testimony to the Bigge Inquiry. In giving evidence of the morality of the female convicts Rev Marsden was asked if those who had been sent up the Parramatta River complained of ill-treatment. “They generally stopped at Squire’s public house, when they got drunk and were robbed,” he answered.
The reverend was no fan of taverns in general, believing there were far too many in the colony. “It has always been a drunken country,” he told the enquiry, “and I think that the vice of drunkenness is much encouraged by the number of licenced houses.”
Squire’s pub was also not far from an area of concern to the magistrates in 1805, due to someone having the temerity to brew beer without a licence.
“In consequence of the various complaints that have lately occurred at Parramatta,” the Gazette reported, “owing to the private breweries which infest the settlement, the magistrates have been under the necessity of removing the cause (so that the effect will in all probability follow) by ordering the private brewer to desist from his unauthorised labours and no beer be vended but by licence.”