Magills & Coghlan Phoenix Brewery Warrenheip Ballarat Poster

In 1857 James Coghlan and Daniel Magenis Magill built a brewery and associated buildings on crown land at Warrenheip about four miles from the town centre of Ballarat. They chose the site because two natural springs arose there. They carried on the business as equal partners under the name Magill and Coghlan, Phoenix Brewery. Each of them put in about £1000 each to build the brewery and get the business under way. Trading probably commenced early in 1858 as their first brewers’ license was issued in April that year.

In May 1860 Alexander Magill, James Coghlin’s brother-in-law, retired from a partnership at the Wharf Brewery. That September he joined his relatives in Warrenheip and entered into the business as an equal one-third shareholder. He payed seven hundred pounds into the business, which, with the land advance, made up his capital of £883. The firm then traded as Magills and Coghlan. 

On the 13 March 1862 Alexander Magill died of typhoid, then know as brain fever. He was only 43 years old. The Magill family folklore suggests that he had died from a rodent bite, which would be consistent with the onset of typhoid. Then very soon after Daniel left the partnership in June when he realised he had consumption of the lungs (Phthisis pulmonalis – tuberculous). He conveyed and released all his interest in the firm to James Coghlan. It is not fully known how Daniel settled up the partnership. He died two years later in November 1864. 

On the first of July 1865, James and his sister Margaret Magill formed a new partnership to carry on the business. At the end of this legal nightmare the business and property had become vested in James and Margaret with the young William Magill (first son) as trustee. They traded as Magills and Coghlan for a creditable thirty years before amalgamating with The Royal Standard Brewery to become Ballarat Brewing Co. This partnership is the earliest known female directorship of an Australian company.

This poster was found under the floor boards of the old Phoenix Brewery in Warrenheip. It is the oldest known poster from that brewery as the dray cart has only two wheels. Other similar posters have a cart that has four wheels.  (c1860).