For much of its history, the former Floodgate Hotel was one of the many pubs in Port Melbourne’s run by women. Amongst its many licencees, some of whom ran the hotel for very brief periods, Mrs Elizabeth Short held the licence in 1880, Ellen Byrne in 1900, and Margaret Frawley in 1937 and Annie Maddock from 1940 to 1946. The Floodgate hotel was known for living up to its name; built in an area adjacent to the former Lagoon where drainage was poor, regular flooding affected the area badly, and during the 1878 floods the Floodgate was one of the “hotels .. crowded with families driven from their homes,” acting as a refuge for displaced women and children. The hotel was known for mainly being frequented by the residents of the neighbouring streets, and for its staff having a close relationship with them, which may have influenced their relaxed attitudes to licencing laws. Amongst several fines for Sunday trading incurred by the licencees of the Floodgate in the early twentieth century, in 1900 Ellen Byrne was fined a total of 44 shillings for “trafficking in liquor on Sunday.” During the early 1940s, Annie Maddock held events for children each December, enlisting local residents to act as “Father Christmas” and distribute gifts at Christmas parties.
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