Horace Bastings

(1831 - 1909)

Horace Bastings was born in Islington, London in 1831 and arrived in Northcote either in the late 1840s or early 1850s. Whilst his brother Edwin built a general store, Horace built the Peacock Inn Hotel in 1854. Horace appears to have joined Edwin in the General Store and may have even been Northcote’s first Post Master.

The new publican of the Peacock was William Bastings, probably Horace and Edwin's father or uncle. In 1857 Bastings built the Quarry Hotel at 101 Lygon Street Brunswick. Within a few years he had left the hotel. Bastings appears to have moved back and forwards between Victoria and New Zealand, dying in Auckland in 1909.

Lemon, Andrew (1983). The Northcote Side of the River. North Melbourne: Hargreen.

Swift, William George (1928). The history of Northcote: From its first settlement to a city. Northcote, Vic: Leader Publishing.