Former Squires Brewery and Halvorsen's Boat Yard

The complex at 20 Waterview Street has historical significance as the site of the Malting Shovel Inn and Brewery, an important early colonial enterprise established by emancipist convict James Squire in c1798. Squire’s brewery was the first commercial brewery established in New South Wales, the first hops brewery, and was an important stopping place along Parramatta River. 

By 1804, Squire had constructed a wharf on Parramatta River next to his inn, known as Squire’s Wharf, to attract passing customers on the river and to support trade and the needs of the estate and his business. The date of construction is not known but it is likely it would have coincided with the construction of the inn.

Following Squire’s death in 1822, the Malting Shovel Inn, its land, orchards and outbuildings, were left to his son, James Squire Jnr. Squire Jnr. maintained the operation of the inn for the next four years Heritage Data Form until his own death in 1826 at the age of 29.

The property remained in the Squire family until the portion with the Brewery and wharf was sold to the Blaxland family, whom then sold it to Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd, a boat building business, in 1938. 

Lars and his eldest son Harold had moved to Sydney, Australia, in late 1924, with the rest of the family arriving at the end of December. From 1925 through 1976 the family enterprise built 1,299 craft, the first, Sirius, from a slipway in Drummoyne and then from yards in Neutral Bay before buying the property at Putney from the Blaxland family.

Construction began on the Halvorsen Sons complex at the start of 1939 and was completed in the early 1940s, comprising a timber wharf, concrete slipways, a boatshed, and associated buildings. 

Halverson Sons Pty Ltd was commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy to commence building vessels for service in World War II. After the war ended, the business focused on building pleasure craft and working boats. By the late 1940s, a crane had been installed at the end of the wharf, as well as a three-pile timber dolphin southeast of the jetty.

In 1980, Halvorsen Sons sold the property to the Commonwealth of Australia and it was converted to a repair facility for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Part of the works included addition of mooring facilities on the Halvorsens’ wharf and some dredging of slipways. The site was owned by the Commonwealth until 1989, when it was sold to Australia Defence Industries Pty Ltd; however, the RAN continued to use the site as a marine service facility. In 1998 naval operations had ceased at the premises and it was sold to a private company, Lilac Pty Ltd, and renamed Putney Marina. It has continued to be used for boat storage and repair purposes and leased out to individuals and small companies. 

The site, which sold in 2024, will be called Pier 20 and transformed into a waterfront dining and commercial precinct along with residential apartments, two three-storey buildings with one, two and three-bedroom apartments and a 36-berth marina.

Listings

State Heritage Inventory, Former Squires Brewery and Halvorsen's Boat Yard, Listing No. A346