Mahogany Creek Inn

Mahogany Creek is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia and is located on the steepest section of Great Eastern Highway.  It is part of the Shire of Mundaring,  The name Mahogany Creek was first recorded by surveyor George Smythe when he was establishing the York Road in 1835.  He noted that there was a small valley of what he thought were English Mahogany Trees, though they were in fact Jarrah.  The creek from which the locality was named flows into Jane Brook which then flows through the John Forrest National Park into the Swan River. 

 The Mahogany Inn sits on the south side of Great Eastern Highway. The first building established at the site of the Mahogany Inn was a granite military barracks with a seperate kitchen and store.  Built around 1839 of local stone, the barracks were constructed to house patrols that could ensure the safety of travellers on the Guildford to York Road.  These military stations were built in the early formative years of the colony.    The site was also close to the road that branched off to the settlement of Northam. 

The Mahogany Inn is Victorian Colonial Georgian style, single storey with an attic, with a low red corrugated iron hipped roof and white washed rendered walls with vertical windows.   By September 1841 the Barracks had been abandoned by the military and by November 1842 the site had been sold to two Perth Merchants, William and Robert Habgood.  The Habgoods purchased 320 acres of land surrounding the former barracks and set up a ‘Road-Side Hotel’.  In October 1843 the brothers advertised to let the property which they described as 

“The well known Road-side House at Mahogany Creek, situated on the York Road, Inn miles from Guildford.  The house is surrounded by very superior timber and will be let on moderate terms.”

The advertisements ran until November 1843 when it was apparently taken up by Edward Byfield.  Edward John Harold Byfield arrived as part of thirty one passengers aboard the Westmoreland in 1840.  He married Jane Eliza Coates the following year.  Jane and her brother had been sent to the colony by The Society for the Encouragement of Juvenile Immigration.  Jane had been placed in the care of James Stirling, first Govener and Commander-In-Chief of Western Australia. She worked as a nursemaid to the Stirling children before marrying Edward.  Edward was the first publican/owner of Mahogany Creek Inn. He applied for a Publicans License at a sitting of the Guildford Magistrates Board.  By the 1850s the Byfields had established what they called a homey wayside inn for weary travellers to rest and dine and called it The Prince Of Wales Hotel.  By 1859 the business was so prosperous Edward Byfield was able to purchase the property from Robert Habgood for 200 pounds.  

Edward and Jane had nine children.  He died in 1863 leaving his property in equal shares with his children, his wife Jane and his brother in law William Coates.  Jane was unable to obtain a publicans license and as this was her families livelihood she married James Gregory not long after the death of her husband Edward.  In 1864 James Gregory was able to get a publicans licence for the Prince Of Wales Hotel. After having two more children with James Gregory, Jane died in August 1871.  Her sons evicted James Gregory from the hotel and their uncle William Coates took over the publicans licence.  He held the licence for the Prince of Wales Hotel until 1875.  

In June 1875 Benjamin Kenworthy took over the publican license for The Prince of Wales and held it until 1877 when former police constable Hennry Coppin took the license over until 1880.  In 1877 William, James and Thomas Byfield, Edward and Janes children, sold their eight shares in the Inn to Northam merchant George Throssell.  During the 1880s the the Byfield sons and Throssell advertised the Inn for sale, calling it ‘Mahogany Creek Inn’.  

Due to the prospect of the construction of a railway though the hills to York there was not much interest in purchasing the Inn.  February 1881 John Symonds announced that he intended to establish a Wayside House operating under the name The Oxford Inn. Symonds held the license until 1883 when he transferred the name and the license to a building in Chidlow.  

The York Road became a toll road administered by local lawman, Constable Henry Coppin.  In 1850 a convict depot was established beside the Prince of Wales Hotel.  Prisoners enroute to Perth were often detained in the cellar of the Mahogany Inn.  In fat the cellar under the Inn where prisoners were detained still has the original table where the prisoners ate their meals and the window still has bars on it.  

Several notorious Western Australian bushrangers were known to visit the Mahogany Inn regularly, including Moondyne Joe.  Joseph Bolitho Johns, known as Moondyne Joe was an English convict and Western Australia’s  most famous bush ranger.  On one particular occasion Moondyne Joe was hiding from the police in the attic of the Inn and he carved a dog chasing a kangaroo on the floor.  The carving still remains.  It was believed that Moondyne Joe liked one of the waitresses that worked at the Inn.  Moondyne Joe was apprehended by the police jumping from the roof of Mahogany Inn

The Inn had several subsequent high profile owners including politician and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Sir Stephen Parker.  

In the 1960s additions were made to the Inn, with several other add on and renovations to follow over the years.  The Mahogany Creek Inn now boasts rooms with all the modern comforts

It is believed that Mahogany Creek Inn is haunted by Moondyne Joe, despite the fact that he actually died of senile dementia in the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum and is buried in Fremantle Cemetary with the welsh word “rhyddid”, meaning “freedom” on his gravestone.  Both staff and visitors to the Inn have reported hearing ghostly noises and experiences.