Amy Southwell, great-great-niece of Hyatt Canberra’s first general manager. Photo: James Coleman.
Technically, today’s hospitality at Hyatt Hotel Canberra can be traced back to caves at Blue Waterholes in the Kosciuszko National Park.
It was there that the hotel’s first general manager, Isabella Southwell, from one of Canberra’s pioneering families, refined her hosting skills.
“The family had an old concertina – like an organ you play with your hands – and she would often host parties at the caves. It was always in her blood to host and enjoy people’s company, and get out there a bit,” her great, great niece Amy Southwell says.
Isabella’s portrait is now emblazoned on a new ‘Canberra Tracks’ sign out the front of the hotel, unveiled this week to honour the site’s historic contribution to the city.
“I’m so incredibly proud of Isabella, and I’m proud of my cousin Jane for getting it up and working with them to get her picture on there,” Amy says.
“I’ve always admired Isabella, having a career in the 20s. I wish she were still around because there are so many questions I’d like to ask her.”
ACT Senator Katy Gallagher, Hyatt general manager Shane Jolly and former ACT senator Gary Humphries, who is working on a thesis on the history of ACT Self-Government 1988-2001. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Canberra Tracks is a network of signage incorporating eight self-drive routes to over 100 historic sites across the city. Supported by an ACT Government heritage grant, the Yarralumla Residents Association put in a bid last year for the Hyatt to be included.
The finished sign was officially unveiled by ACT Senator Katy Gallagher and former ACT Chief Minister Gary Humphries, coinciding with the 37th anniversary of the hotel’s reopening as the Hyatt Hotel Canberra.
“Thank you for taking the trouble to mark the important role the hotel has played in Canberra’s history,” Mr Humphries told the gathered crowd.
“We’ve all been part of that one way or the other, and it’s fabulous to make sure citizens, long after the early eras of its great, great importance in the development of the city, have an insight into what the hotel meant.”
In preparation for the wave of politicians visiting the new capital, the city’s first hotel was opened by the federal government in 1924. However, it couldn’t be called that.
Hotels were associated with the sale of alcohol, and in the early 20th century, this was still prohibited in Canberra. So we had “Hostel Number 1” – at least for three years. When the ban was lifted, it was rechristened Hotel Canberra in 1927.
At the same time, Isabella moved down the road to Hotel Kurrajong to become the general manager there as well. She held that role until her death in 1946.
Isabella Southwell. Photo: Hyatt Hotel Canberra.
Initially designed with capacity for 180 guests, Hotel Canberra wasn’t all about accommodation to start with.
One wing was designated as office space for various government departments, while the other served as a storage facility for equipment at the Mount Stromlo Observatory, which was still under construction at the time.
As the only building in the city with rooms that could be “locked up”, it also functioned as a sort of jail for alleged offenders before their transfer from Canberra (juries would often deliberate on their fate only a few rooms over).
Another part of the hotel was converted into a temporary dance hall, with internal partitions removed, a tallowwood floor laid, and a player piano and gramophone installed.
The Hyatt as it appeared in 1926-27. Photo: Hyatt Hotel Canberra.
You’ll also notice that one of today’s sections of the hotel is called Scullin Pavilion after perhaps its most famous long-term resident, former Labor prime minister James Scullin.
Rather than revel in the grand quarters at the Lodge – which he figured wouldn’t be such a good look during the Great Depression – Mr Scullin and his wife elected to live in a Hotel Canberra suite instead during his term.
“With the exception of being sheltered in the dining room by a high screen, they lived as ordinary guests,” the Hyatt Hotel Canberra website reads.
“During the bleak Depression years, Scullin adopted the habit of changing notes for shillings with the hotel’s cashiers, which he then threw to people on the long journey by road to either Sydney or Melbourne.”
By the 1940s, the hotel had earned a reputation as the city’s “second Parliament House” – a hub of plotting and political intrigue.
“In October 1941, the Hotel Canberra was the scene of intense political lobbying when the fate of Arthur Fadden’s government relied on the votes of two independent members in the residence at the hotel,” the Hyatt website says.
“Great schemes were hatched in the lobby to win the independents over, but ultimately John Curtin’s Labour government took power in a period of wartime crisis.”
On 13 May 1974, the hotel closed. For more than a decade, it was little more than government office space.
Then, in 1988, Hyatt International took charge and reopened it as Canberra’s only five-star hotel at the time, restoring the original Art Deco style to its former glory in the process.
The Hyatt’s Tea Lounge. Photo: Kazuri Photography
Today, it can accommodate up to 300 guests and host a wide range of events in its immaculate grounds and grand Federation and Canberra ballrooms.
We also have to mention the all-you-can-eat buffet. Senator Gallagher certainly remembers it.
“For me, my 21st birthday was celebrated here – with the all-you-can-eat buffet being such a big thing in the early 90s – and I remember it because my brother ate more than he should have and had to leave here with some assistance,” she recalled.
“It’s always on my mind – the look on my brother’s face as it dawned on everyone that the all-you-can-eat buffet had beaten him.”
Visit the Hyatt Hotel Canberra for more information.
