This cart track had been built by Dr Charles Throsby from the Cowpastures (Picton-Camden) through Bargo to Bong Bong and Sutton Forest and on to the Goulburn Plains.

The Governor encouraged settlement along the road, particularly in the fertile Wingecarribee River area where taverns and inns were soon established to cater for both settlers and travellers. The earliest inns followed the old South Road, before Berrima was surveyed in the 1830s on a new line for the Great Southern Road. A regular stream of traffic passed through the Berrima district.

A new book Life Behind the Bar: Inns and Hotels in the Southern Highlands1824-1924 has been written by Shylie Brown, an historical researcher who has lived in the district for 11 years. It provides details on more than 450 licensees, their families and where their premises were located along the Great Southern Road and other locations within the Southern Highlands.

Published by the Berrima District Historical Society, this book will be launched on Friday, October 24 at the Society's newly extended Berrima District Museum by Associate Professor Carol Liston, President of the Royal Australian Historical Society which assisted with the book's publication.

The RAHS is holding its 2014 State History Conference at Mittagong RSL on the weekend of October 25-26. At the museum on the Friday evening there will be a pre-conference event to welcome delegates to the area and to showcase the new extension. The book launch will be a highlight of this function.

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Life Behind the Bar provides a comprehensive description of all the licensees who ran the inns and hotels that operated in the local district between 1824 and 1924. An index of licences is provided as an Appendix.

The chequered early history of the colony's taverns and inns is also outlined in the book. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, convicts were put to work cutting down trees, clearing undergrowth and erecting tents for their shelter. The supply of alcoholic spirits was most rigidly prohibited by the first governor, Governor Phillip, but was relaxed soon after he left the colony in 1792.

Ships regularly arrived in Sydney Cove, unloading substantial cargoes of alcoholic spirits, which were purchased by the military and civil officers. A number of the officers paid the convicts in liquor for their labour, making enormous profits. Governor Hunter, who replaced Phillip, found that drunkenness abounded and in 1798 he introduced controls on the importation of liquor.

Despite this, many small buildings, no better than humpies, were erected and it was to these buildings that convicts and settlers were drawn to drink and socialise. Seen as more useful than a church, many of them were the first buildings erected at new settlements where beer, wines and spirits were available.

A government brewery was established in Parramatta by Governor King, the third governor, who believed that beer would be more beneficial; he also set about reducing the number of shoddy humpies.

The fourth governor, Macquarie, arrived in 1810 and soon urged explorers to open up land and encouraged new settlements.

He insisted that the rapidly erected outlying inns and hotels provide accommodation and food, as well as liquor and a place for horses and animals to rest securely.

As a result, many of the taverns and shanty buildings were replaced with a distinctly colonial style of building with quality joinery, wide eaves and a verandah. A tap room was also included, which was a small locked room with an opening to serve drinks.

THE new book reveals that by 1879 there were 17 inns and hotels listed in the Berrima district, including at Nattai (Mittagong), Bowral, Robertson and Marulan.

By 1900 only nine inns were listed. The Royal Hotel was the sole hotel listed in Bowral, even though there were three hotels trading at that time.

As the population grew in the districts of Moss Vale and Picton, licensing courts were established. After 1922, Publicans' Licensing Courts were held in the local area and the names of the hotels and the licensees appeared in the local newspapers such as the Scrutineer.

The book includes location maps of the inns, starting at the northern point, the Traveller's Inn Tahmoor, following the Great Southern Road (Hume Highway) and Illawarra Highway through the district localities and ending at the Imperial Hotel, Bowral.

Life Behind the Bar: Inns and Hotels in the Southern Highlands1824-1924 is available for $30 from the Berrima District Historical Society website at the Online Shop section, where it may be purchased (by those who use PayPal) or it can be ordered by emailing to the BDHS and paid for by funds transfer. Email bdhsarchives@gmail.com