By 1876, 22% of alcohol licences for pubs and hotels in Melbourne were held by women, yet in the Port Melbourne area this proportion was much higher, with 68% of pubs and hotels in the South Melbourne licencing area run by women. Before the concerted efforts made to restrict licences in the late 1880s, Port Melbourne also had a far higher concentration of licenced premises than the rest of Victoria, which meant that women’s dominance of this field was more marked. In 1880, several hotels on Bay Street were run by women: the Newmarket Hotel (Mrs Caroline Streat), the Exchange Hotel at 39 Bay St (Mrs Harriet Pemberton), the Rose and Crown Hotel at 309 Bay St (Miss Bridget Torpey), Chequers Hotel at 316 Bay St (Mary Crockford), and The Victoria Hotel on the corner of Graham St (Anne Madden). Port Melbourne continued to have a higher than average proportion of women publicans after this period, as well as a high concentration of hotels relative to population. Due to the social and cultural role of hotels in the Port Melbourne area, it also placed them in prominent positions of social authority and economic power to a greater extent than in other parts of Melbourne and Australia.
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