“The idea of naming beers after our local towns, came about when launching the first Octubafest three years ago.” said Octubafest musical event founder and local grazier Michael Katz.

“From that brain explosion we got Garrundah Thunder and Gunning Gas. “Everyone loved the idea of having a beer named after their town.

“So when we knew Octubafest was coming to Crookwell on October 22, at the Memorial Hall, the thinking caps went on.

“That result was Captain Crookwell and the beer an Indian Pale Ale.

The beer is made to our specifications by a small northern Sydney craft brewer.

Lots of stories have unfortunately been lost about local characters.

And a town’s history can be like a sermon, all dates and places. With no human face.

So we then had to invent Captain Crookwell’s back story. And, as Napoleon Bonaparte, said all history is gossip.

So sitting around  with a few Garrundah Thunders we let our imaginations off the leash – with a good dash of Australian humour.  

Our eponymous mythical Captain Horatio Crookwell was the third son of the impoverished Earl of Crookwell.

His eldest brother inherited the family title, some mangy hunt dogs, and a rundown manor house in England’s Leicestershire.

A stark choice for Horatio.

Religion or the military as a calling.

Horatio could not imagine tending the curate’s egg, or being served the parson’s nose at Sunday roast. A life of adventure beckoned. Meagre family resources purchased him a captaincy in the British Indian army. Calcutta was his destination in 1843.

Crookwell immediately was sent to the northern frontiers.

This article was a little lengthy and space limited so the full story is on www.crookwellgazette.com.au

Chasing pesky Pashtuns uphill and down dale.

Which he did with great aplomb aboard his Percheron charge Percy. And ably attended by his faithful adjutant, Gadsby.  

Crookwell served with distinction.

Until one day a swarthy Pashtun warrior decided Crookwell, who was chasing the said warrior through the mountainous lowlands, was deserving of a new Khyber pass.

Percy carried the posteriorly wounded Crookwell back to forward camp. The captain was then invalided to a base hospital in India, where he spent many months recuperating.  

During his convalescence he learnt the fledgling colony of NSW was offering British army officers an opportunity to immigrate to Australia, and to help keep law and order in small remote settler outposts.

Land, and more importantly fortune beckoned.

Crookwell set sail with Percy and Gadsby for Sydney in 1847.

In the late 1840’s settlers in the Grabben Gullen and Binda areas began to clear land and establish their squatting runs. Wheat and potatoes were grown and native grasses were cut for hay.

So to this southern districts region, some six days ride from Parramatta, went Crookwell.

Riding Percy with Gadsby leading the supply horse cart, piled high with rum cases.

Crookwell, as a Justice of the Peace  was responsible, more than any,  for disturbing the peace. For literally he had a pain in the bum.

Crookwell had taken to rum drinking on his sea ocean journey to Sydney, like Percy took to a bag of oats. The rum soothed his aching gluteus.   

When drunk he liked to conduct his imaginary orchestra for the scores of his two favourite operas Rigoletto and Tosca.

When Capital Crookwell burst into aria, Gadsby covered his ears, Percy shied sideways and a kangaroos bounded for the hills, disturbed by the Captain’s shrill braying imitation of the evil Scarpia.

To quell the verbal insurrection, Gadsby often had to throw a bucket of water over the Captain. This only monetarily felled Captain Crookwell’s operatic ambitions.

Establishing his bush humpy on what is now Crookwell’s Commercial Hotel, Captain Crookwell, discerned quickly there was more than a passing quid to be made serving thirsty travellers and squatters.  

Easier work too.  

For their favourite tipples, rum and beer were in short supply. Having sold as agent for the NSW government the first half acre block in Crookwell for 20 pounds ( and pocketed a small honorium for his efforts), Crookwell went into the beer making business. Using wheat from the nearby mill at Laggan, and empty rum bottles (Gadsby was an early environmentalist – he believed in recycling), Crookwell brewed a potent evil smelling beer, which he called India Pale Ale and sold for a shilling a bottle.

Crookwell soon couldn’t keep up with demand.

Gadsby was sent to Sydney to buy second hand rum barrels so production could be increased.  

The rest they say is history!

By 1867 Crookwell had its first Post Office.

The town population in 1864 was 130.

In 1872 Captain Crookwell’s town plan was in operation and the population was over 1,000.

It took four days to reach Goulburn by dray until 1875 when the first passenger coach was introduced, taking only one day each way.

Goulburn Street developed with the Commercial Hotel (now the Horse & Hound Hotel) being built in 1874 - publican a very prosperous Capt. Crookwell. The Bank of NSW was built in 1875 (now the Crookwell Visitor Information Centre), the Courthouse and Police Station in 1878, and the tannery, cordial factory, flour mill, five stores two chemists, saddler, butcher and blacksmiths.  The first agricultural Show took place in 1879.

Patron Captain Horatio Crookwell.

Goulburn Street was often a quagmire as bullock wagons trundled through carrying wool, wheat and flour to Goulburn.

Traction engines soon took this job on, but their weight did nothing to improve road conditions.

Captain Crookwell, now well into his three score and ten, had a thriving hotel and brewery. Gadsby proved to be something of a scoundrel and made off to the UK with the Hotel’s takings.

The Captain’s fondness was undiminished for Opera.

True to form, blind drunk and merrily conducting riding Percy’s replacement home, he fell off his horse in Goulburn Street and tragically drowned in one of the big bog holes created that day by a traction engine.  

Fiction is sometime stranger than truth!