Old Canberra Inn

It became the Read family home until 1974, called The Pines until it was renovated and relicensed as the Old Canberra Inn.

He was born in Ireland in 1836 and migrated to Australia in 1841 at the age of 5 with his parents John Schmack (1812-1849) and Margaret O’Toole.

[1] They were part of the Shumack family who are credited with making substantial contributions to the development of Canberra.

[2] In 1842, Joseph's father acquired Glebe Farm which was on the western boundary of Duntroon with a frontage to the Molonglo River.

He lived here with his family until 1849 when he died suddenly leaving his wife Margaret to care for four young children the oldest of whom was Joseph who was 13 at that time.

[5] As the map shows Joseph's house was ideally positioned next to the Yass to Queanbeyan Road so in 1876 he decided to take advantage of his location and converted his residence to the "Canberra Inn" and obtained a liquor licence.

[9] John Read (1868-1917) who bought the Old Canberra Inn in 1887 converted it back to a residence and called it "The Pines".

[10] The couple had ten children and settled on a property called "Wattle Grove" at Sutton.

She was the daughter of Robert Maloney who owned one of the 100 acre lots shown in the map above that was almost adjacent to the Old Canberra Inn.

The Read family continued to operate the property as a farm as in 1898 John won a prize at the Agricultural show for his oat crop.