Collits, Pierce

Born:

proprietor of Collits' Inn on the Great Western Road, below Mount York.

Career Highlights

Peirce Brigginton(?) Collits was convicted in London in 1800 and arrived in Sydney on the Minora the following year. He and his wife Mary settled in the District of Evan, where Pierce was Chief Constable. They built their inn, the "Golden Fleece", at the base of Mount York around 1823. It accomodated a long stream of noteable visitors, including Governors Darling and Bourke, and was the subject of many descriptions by travellers.

In 1827, a traveller `X.Y.Z’ (Major Antil?), described Collett’s Inn, “the Golden Fleece”, in glowing terms.
“We cannot pause at a better place … I assure you there is only one better inn in the whole colony, for it is warm, comfortable, and commodious in the inside, as it is beautiful and picturesque without … To arrive at Collett’s is like passengers going ashore from a weary voyage, everything appears a couleur de rose … [but] all this good accommodation is not had for nothing; some people thinking the charges high at this house under the hill”. Mackaness (ed.), Fourteen Journeys, 178-80.

Shortly after the missionaries passed through, a new line of road was opened by Governor Bourke, (down Victoria Pass) which bypassed Collett’s Inn.

Bibliographies

W.L. Harvard, "Pierce Collits and His Inns", JRAHS 23, 5 (1938):392-4__.