The claim
A two-storey Georgian inn in the Derwent Valley town of New Norfolk, finished in 1825 and still pulling beers seven days a week. Beyond its famous rivalry with Hobart's Hope and Anchor, it has hosted opera composers and Dame Nellie Melba, and it received the first trunk telephone call in Australia. Today it's known for steaks and a terrace with live music.
What the records show
Building began about 1815 and the house was finished in 1825, with the first licence granted to Ann Bridger, a widow who had arrived in Hobart two years earlier. The Derwent Valley Gazette, marking the inn's two hundredth year in October 2025, dates that licence precisely to 29 September 1825 and names Belinda Smith as the licensee now, after the lease changed hands in April 2023 when the twins Peter and Don Smith left. The same article repeats the inn's claim to have stayed open and licensed throughout, and contrasts it with Hobart's Hope and Anchor, which it says closed for long stretches. That claim is contradicted by newspaper evidence found by the trade press, which shows the Bush Inn closed and serving as a private residence between about 1874 and 1877. Both accounts are recorded here because the disagreement is the point: the year of the first licence is firm, the unbroken run is not. The inn says on its own pages that it is the oldest pub in Tasmania and the newest pub in New Norfolk, having been built in 1815 and restored since, and it opens seven days from eleven in the morning.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1815 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1815 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 1825 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- First trunk telephone call in Australia made to the hotel, 1888
- Dame Nellie Melba sang here in 1924
- W. Vincent Wallace composed here in 1838
- Private residence c. 1874-1877 (breaks continuity claim)
Visiting
The Bush Inn is in New Norfolk, Australia, at 51 Montagu Street, New Norfolk TAS 7140. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bush_Inn,_Tasmania
- timegents.com/2014/11/30/the-bush-inn-tasmania/
- www.thebushinn.com.au/
- newnorfolknews.com/2023/04/one-era-ends-and-another-begins-at-the-bush-inn/
- www.australiantraveller.com/australia/oldest-pubs-in-australia/
- www.tasmaniancountry.com/newspaper/derwent-valley-gazette/beloved-bush-inn-celebrates-200-years
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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