Triabunna House

Triabunna House was built as an inn for Thomas Martin, a publican, to provide accommodation for the military from Maria Island.
It was repossessed by the mortgagor, George Rudd, in 1846.  Triabunna House was a public house and shop until 1859 and was finally sold to Robert Robinson as part of George Rudd’s bankrupt estate for 275 pounds. Although it was a large house, the timber extensions were made in the late 1880’s. It is thought that Robert Robinson built the buttressed front windows and doors to advertise the stone from the Okehampton quarry.

The wooden additions were used for the installation of the electric telegraph and the Post office and Annie Robinson and her daughter, Clara, were the postmistresses until 1911.
The shop specialized in clothing, dress materials and haberdashery. Annie Robinson was a dear old lady who always wore a cap. She wrote to her son, Fred, saying “Its is well I can earn my own living and don’t want for pensions”

The excellence of the Robinsons and then the Thompson Family Boarding House was known throughout Tasmania. From 1906, it provided accommodation and meals for visitors and passengers on the horse and motor coaches and a new dining room was added in 1925.
A meal cost 2s 6d with a choice of 2 soups, 2 entrees, 2 meats with vegetables and a choice of sweets with tea or coffee. All the food was locally produced, for they had their own cows, poultry and vegetable garden. Apples and pears can from the Rostrevor Orchard, a mile away which for many years was one of the largest orchards in the southern hemisphere.

The Thompson family managed the boarding house until it closed when the bigger dining room opened up at Thompson’s Spring Bay Hotel further down the road.

Text & Information sourced from signs around the streets of Triabunna.