Our first township had a cracking pub

Situated on some high ground above the Wingecarribee River, in what is now the Bong Bong Common between Mittagong and Bowral, William Bowman built his pub in 1827, not far from where the Royal Oak (now the Briars) is located further up the hill from Bowman's Inn, 18 years later in 1845.

On an old 1832 map of Australia, Bong Bong and Bargo were the only two towns marked between what is now Goulburn and Campbelltown, so the pub would have been a popular spot.

The beer came down the bush track from the Parramatta Brewery and was delivered in 54-gallon hogsheads, which must have made the local Bargo bushrangers a bit interested. Bowman sold the licence to Richard Loseby in 1832 for eighty quid and it is reported Loseby made something like 600 pounds in the first year, which is a lot of money - maybe $150,000 in today's currency.

A gentleman writing in the Sydney Gazette in that same year didn't paint a very glowing picture of the Bong Bong township, but he did like the pub.

"Bong Bong is very ineligibly situated; the flat on which it is built is depressed considerably below the level of the surrounding country, and continually subject to inundation," he writes, saying that there were, "a few miserable huts, a cottage or two occupied by Government dependents, an apology for a soldiers' barrack, a new commissariat store, and a gaol, of course, constitute the town, which has only one redeeming feature - a first rate house of entertainment, the Argyle Inn, kept by Mr.W.Bowman.

This rest for the weary is conducted on a most respectable scale, and with its dashing hostess, forms an agreeable insipidity of the dullest of dull settlements."

In those days pubs served many purposes apart from selling grog.

People travelling between Sydney and all points south would have stopped at Bowman's Inn to refuel body, soul and spirit, plus feed their horse.

The pubs were places to escape reality, have a yarn, gamble, have a feed and a decent bed, find a good woman (or man) and even buy the latest offerings from travelling hawkers.

If you got drunk and stepped out of line then you would probably be tossed in the lock-up at Bong Bong until a magistrate could hear your case.

Punishment was usually a good flogging from the local scouger, whose job was to flog anyone who stepped out of line.

More serious offenders were placed in leg irons to work on the road gangs.

Yes, times were tough when Bowman's Inn was built at Bong Bong almost 200 years ago.

Dudley was telling me that one day an old woman tied her horse to the hitching post outside Bowman's Inn.

As she stood there, a cocky young local Bong Bong lad came out of the pub with a rifle in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

He looked at her and laughed; "Hey old woman, have you ever danced?"

The old woman looked up at the young bloke, confessing; "No, I never did dance. Never really wanted to. Hate dancing actually, son."

The young bloke grinned. "Well, you old bag, you're gunna dance now," and started shooting at her feet.

The old lady, not wanting to get her toes blown off, started hopping around.

Hearing the shots, his mates came out of the pub laughing as he emptied all of the bullets, then tossed his rifle on the ground.

The old woman calmly went back to her horse and pulled a double-barreled shotgun out of the saddle, cocking both hammers before pointing the gun at the young bloke.

Just then her horse deposited a pile of fresh steaming manure at his feet.

"Sonny, have you ever eaten fresh horse shit before?" she asked calmly, fingering the trigger.

"No Madam, bbbbut I've always wanted to, " he stammered nervously in front of his chuckling mates.

And the moral of this story.

Don't be cocky, always make sure you know who has the power, don't waste bullets, whiskey makes you think you're smarter than you are, and don't mess with old people.

They didn't get old by being stupid.