Boydtown's 'Seahorse Inn' and Church
Construction of Boydtown began in 1843 when the newly arrived Scottish entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd proposed to base his Steamship Company at Twofold Bay.
He purchased a large section of land in the southern portion of the bay where he established the townships of Boydtown and East Boyd.
The first building erected in that year was the "Seahorse Inn", named after Boyd's yacht.
Boydtown’s church was thereafter constructed and roofed but never furnished due to the subsequent bankruptcy of Boyd.
The church lost its roof in 1926 in one of the many bushfires which have periodically devastated this area and which have also destroyed many other historic Boydtown buildings, but its crumbling walls still stand today on the hill behind the Seahorse Inn.
Benjamin Boyd was a controversial figure in Australian history.
He soon became one of the largest landholders in Australia with more than 2,000,000 acres (810,000 hectares) as well as interests in whaling, shipping, export, banking and finance.
He was also elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly.
He instigated many grandiose schemes but his financial empire was plagued by shipping losses, labour disputes (which he unsuccessfully tried to solve initially by “blackbirding” or importing islanders under virtual slave conditions, and then by importing indentured labour from England) and financial mismanagement until he was declared bankrupt in 1848 and departed for the Californian goldfields in 1849 to attempt to recoup his fortunes.
In 1851 he disappeared in the Solomon Islands when he went ashore to hunt ducks.
His body was never recovered, despite searches initiated by his creditors.
By this time, Boydtown had become a virtual ghost town.
In 1936 a family of builders from Lakes Entrance, Mr. R.B. Whiter and his two sons, bought and restored Boyd’s ‘Seahorse Inn’.
The building has changed hands a number of times since and is now a picturesque, boutique hotel (click here to view their website).