History
What next for Warrawee? By Peter McCullough
W
hile the Tanti Hotel, on the corner of Tanti Avenue and the Nepean Highway in Mornington, is shown on maps as far back as the early 1850's and is almost certainly the first hotel to be established on the Mornington Peninsula, one of the earliest hotels in the Hastings District began its life as a family home in Balnarring. Subsequently named Warrawee, it was built in the 1860's for the Van Suylen* family. Its position at the junction of tracks leading from Frankston to Flinders and Dromana to Sandy Point made it an ideal stopping point for travellers. It was to become the Tower House Hotel. Who were the Van Suylens? Paul Van Suylen was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1824 and it was there that he married Johanna Adriaenssens in 1845. He was a sailmaker by trade and in 1854 he and Johanna, with their seven year old son, Philip, journeyed to London from where they departed for Australia on the Dutch brig “Amasis”. On 8 July, 1854 they arrived in Geelong. Victoria was in the grip of gold rush fever with new arrivals numbering around a thousand every day. The Van Suylens joined the rush, but instead of seeking the elusive metal, Paul Van Suylen
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put his skills to good use and started to manufacture tents and other canvas goods for the gold diggers or anyone else who needed them. Van Suylen tents could even be found along Elizabeth Street. As the brig “Amasis” was a cargo vessel and his ticket mentioned “stowage”, it is thought that Paul Van Suylen brought his first load of materials with him as well as his tools. However he was soon importing canvas and other materials as required, and the family moved around the goldfields to meet demand. The trips by horse and wagon between the goldfields and Melbourne to collect canvas, calico and other materials would have been most arduous. As they moved around the family expanded: their second son,Paul, was born in Maryborough in 1855 and their first girl, Elizabeth, was born at Pleasant Creek in 1858. Two years later Annie Maria was born at Sandy Creek and the family was completed when the fifth child, Emma, was born in a tent (naturally) at Landsborough, near Stawell, in 1862. Because the diggers found the name Van Suylen hard to pronounce, and even harder to spell, Paul was known as “Mr. Tent”; if Johanna was included they were “Mr. and Mrs. Tenty”. While his business was proving to be very profitable there was the occasional setback for Paul Van Suylen. On 12 December, 1860 the Chiltern Standard reported in the rather quaint terminology of the