Who is Sam Knott?
 |
| Statue of Sam Knott |
If you were driving from Melbourne towards Warburton a few years ago, you have been lucky enough to have your health being toasted by a Father Christmas-like gent by the side of the road. Out the front of what was once The Sam Knott Hotel (now Warburton Hotel) in Wesburn there's a wood sculpture of an icon that has decorated Australia's pool rooms and pub for just over a century.
The subject of the sculpture is Sam Knott, a prospector who came from England in 1888 just as Victoria's gold rush had run dry. Sam found other work including at the pub that once bore his name. The bartender of the Sam Knott Hotel told me Sam was repeatedly paid the same pound note once a week that he religiously returned to the cash register to clear off his weekly drinking slate.
In 1906 a photographer from the city snapped the enthusiastic drinker at the bar. When he remarked that he enjoyed his drink even though it was before noon, Sam cracked his famous line "I allus has wan at eleven" which became part of boozing and branding history. Carlton United Breweries loved the image and the accompanying story - promptly putting Sam's mug and slogan onto posters that still hang in Victoria's pubs today.
Sam really needed an agent, because the lovable character never saw a cent from the image or his famous line. Some even claim he was misquoted as Sam reputedly regaled the photographer with this poem:
I allus has wan at elevenIt's a habit that's got to be done
Cos if I don't have wan at eleven
I allus have eleven at one.
As poetic as Sam may have been, it's unlikely he came up with a verse mid-drink.
Still his legend lives on. Some speculate that he was really Sam Griffin and was renamed by the brewery. A story they used to tell around the bar at the Sam Knott Hotel reckoned that Sam's thirst was supernatural. When Sam died they brought his coffin into the hotel and propped it up against the bar for one last drink. They say that even as they lay the body in the ground Sam rose up again to for another drink. And some say it still happens with a shadowy figure leaning against the bar. Usually around eleven.
Poster image courtesy of National Archives of Australia's Virtual Reading Room.
This is part of the Local Legends series, which calls out some places that I reckon evoke a unique place or time and really matter to people who live there. They're very subjective and personal so you may not like any of them.
That's at Wesburn! bravo. I thought that name was familiar. Have bought a bottle there once, though not before eleven (pun unintended).
ReplyDeleteYou mean Wesburn, don't you? Did you know Wesburn used to be West Warburton? (I think.)
ReplyDeleteI get a bit confused about it all, but I think - but not sure - the road ended somewhere around there until later they blasted out a road along the edge of the river, which is now the curving bit of road into modern Warburton.
Old Warburton (nothing left to see, as far as I can make out) is up on the hill behind Wesburn.
Thanks for the eagle-eyes, parlance & genevieve. If we could afford prizes here at Hackpacker Nerve Centre, you'd both be given something shiny and impressive. It'll have to be *virtual*.
ReplyDeleteI am *virtually* astonished at the depth of parlance's knowledge of the district. Verily I speak as an eastern 'burbs tourist. Old Warburton sounds like it could have a story to tell.
ReplyDeleteAnd I meant to say, Sam Knott's story is great to hear too.
Genevieve, I had a *virtual" red face at the compliment. I'd better admit an interest in the matter - I have a house at East Warburton.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't know the story about Sam Griffin, so thanks for the link, Hackpacker. (I liked my shiny prize, by the way.)
I came across this link to Old Warburton while I was thinking about all this. http://www.worldisround.com/articles/336012/text.html
I've read that this was Percy Leason first major illustration for Carlton Brewery while working in the art department of Sands & McDougall Lithographers in 1906.
ReplyDelete