FORMER DEAN’S INN

The archaeological features and deposits associated with the Former Dean's Inn. 

The site is local historical and archaeological significance. 

The site is the location of a former 1850’s one-storey bluestone, gold rush-era hotel that  was known as Dean’s Inn. The hotel was noted as being one of the many hotels built to 

service the traffic passing through Bulla during the gold rush, from the mid-1850s.  In the 1951 aerial photograph, the hotel complex is shown still standing and intact, however, the 1968 aerial photo shows that the small buildings have been demolished and that main hotel building at the corner is ruined and no longer has a roof by that time.  

 

The original building has been demolished and the location of the former Inn building has undergone some significant ground disturbance at the south-western corner of the site from the construction of a roundabout and a large drain and drainage pit in the early 1990s. However, the site card states there is high potential for archaeological remains of at least half of the former inn building and associated outbuildings to be present on the site. There are no other listed hotel-type archaeological sites in the Bulla area, yet Bulla was renowned for its inns during the early-Gold Rush period (early 1850s). Therefore, this site has the potential to significantly contribute to an understanding about this history. 

The site is of historical significance as one of the early Gold Rush-era hotels that were built along the main route through Bulla for travellers on coaches and other transports to stop on their way to the goldfields.