Patrick, son of Thomas and Mary (née Gill) Corbett, was born about 1837. He married Annie Elizabeth Slattery in 1871. Annie was born in 1843 at Darebin Creek. They appeared to have no children. Patrick ran the Gnarwarre Hotel on a corner of his farm 12 miles from town on the corner of Pollocksford and Barrabool Roads. Later a post office and store was added. He became a Barrabool Shire councillor serving from 1876 until 1895 when he retired due to ill health. He was shire president in 1881, 1886, 1887 and 1888. He became a justice of the peace, a position he resigned from in April 1898. Patrick's sheep farming partnership with his brother-in-law, John Slattery was dissolved on 1 May 1890. In April 1905 Patrick was charged with Sunday trading. The license of the hotel was transferred to John Keenan on 3 March 1908 when Patrick retired to Geelong in 1908. He ran it until he died, when his widow, Mary, took over the running of it. The hotel closed in 1922 and was demolished in 1968. Patrick died on 10 August 1916 aged 79 years at the home of his sister, Ellen Meehan, 40 Albert Street in East Melbourne. He was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Geelong Eastern Cemetery with Annie, who died in 1912 aged 69 years. |