Richard Patterson’s book, ‘Nobblers and Lushingtons - A History of the Hotels of Beechworth and the Ovens District’, will be launched Friday 4th Dec

Endymion (Australia) Pty Ltd is pleased to announce that the Press Launch of
Richard Patterson’s book, ‘Nobblers and Lushingtons -
A History of the Hotels of Beechworth and the Ovens District’,

Nobblers and Lushingtons contains 400 pages, 35 contemporary photographs
and information on over 230 hotels in Beechworth and the neighbouring district,
as well as the names of over 800 licensees.

Among the many issues it explores are:
- The murder of Robert Murdock, manager of a Beechworth hotel, and the possibility
that he was the victim of a serial killer.
- The death of James Coyne Riley, following his accidental stabbing during the performance of a play at the Star Hotel, Beechworth.
- The dark secrets about their pasts that many of Beechworth’s earliest hotel-keepers
tried to keep hidden.
- The role of women on the goldfields and the extent of prostitution in Beechworth.
- How the first man to be hanged at Beechworth Gaol had murdered a local hotelkeeper
and the links between this killing and two other appalling murders.

Richard Patterson has lived in Beechworth for 3 years and previously worked in
human resource management for 35 years. Nobblers and Lushingtons is his first book.

Note: A ‘nobbler’ was nineteenth century slang for a shot of spirits, while a ‘lushington’
was someone who habitually imbibed too many of them.