A piece of Australian brewing and hotel history has been added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World register thanks to a joint bid by Powerhouse and The Australian National University’s Noel Butlin Archives.
The Tooth and Company Collections form the most significant and complete publicly accessible documentation of Australia’s brewing and hotel industries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Australian Register was founded in 2000 and is part of a worldwide system of more than 60 significant documentary heritage registers that operate under the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.
Powerhouse CEO Lisa Havilah said: “Powerhouse is proud to stand with the ANU Noel Butlin Archives to join the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register, which recognises the importance of documenting key moments in Australia’s history.”
University archivist at The Australian National University Kathryn Dan says the university is also honoured to have another collection inscribed on the register.
“The Tooth & Company collections held by the ANU Archives and Powerhouse tell the story of Australian society through the major industry of brewing and hotels. The documentary heritage we hold connects with Australians in many communities, so it is critical we preserve it. Everyone knows a pub: it is either their ‘local’ or a piece of architecture in their community,” she said.
The archival collection’s inclusion highlights the brewing company’s significance to Australian social history through its documentation of businesses, regional communities, architecture and society.
It shows the growth of local manufacturing that resulted in colonial NSW’s reduced reliance on British imports which led to the evolution of the local brewing industry prior to its decline in the late 20th century.
Dr Charles (Chuck) Hahn is currently the director and brewmaster of Chuck & Sons Brewing Co. but spent time in the 1980s working for Tooth and Company.
Hahn is one of Australia’s highest profile brewers and has been a force in Australian, New Zealand and American brewing for over 30 years.
“I think that is fantastic that the Tooth’s archives are being added to the UNESCO World Register. I arrived in Australia in mid-1981 as General Manager – Brewing and had been recruited as a brewing technocrat to assist Tooths in making certain that their new $100 million modernisation of the Kent Brewery site would make high quality beers.
“For many years previous, Tooths and Tooheys had almost total control of the beers available in NSW due to their brewery hotel ownerships and domination of the industry. It’s pleasing to know that these records are now being preserved,” said Hahn.
Tooth and Company and Kent Brewery were acquired by Carlton and United Breweries (CUB) in 1983 and was operated by the company until its closure in 2005.
A spokesperson from CUB tells Beer & Brewer: “We raise a glass of Resch’s to Powerhouse Museum and The Australian National University’s Noel Butlin Archives for this achievement.”
“Tooth’s history is intertwined with that of Sydney’s in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tooth employed countless Sydneysiders, developed landmarks such as Chippendale’s Kent Brewery and The Australian (now Abercrombie) Hotel and brewed iconic beers Reschs, KB Lager and more.
This recognition highlights how the brewing and hotel industries across the country have shaped Australia’s social history, manufacturing, farming, architecture and much more. For two centuries, they have brought Australians together while helping create our national identify,” they said.
1922 –1959
In 1986, Powerhouse acquired the Tooth and Company Collection with assistance from the Australian Government’s Taxation Incentive for the Arts Scheme.
The collection featured paper-based archival material, photographic material, brewing equipment and ephemera, and was used extensively in a foundation exhibition entitled Brewing and Pubs.
Architectural drawings gifted to Powerhouse by Tooth and Co architect George Tickelpenny in 1998, a Tooth and Co advertising sign, plans and drawings from 1930–1940 by architect Cyril Christian Ruwald, photographs from 1890–1985, and an archive of work produced by Sidney Warden, were showcased in the exhibition.
As part of the Powerhouse Collection and Digitisation Project, the Tooth and Company Archive was assessed, documented, conserved and digitised.