Henrietta Bush and The Ocean Beach Hotel

Henrietta Lewis married Captain Edward Puttman while they both worked in the Fiji Islands. Sadly Edward died of a heart attack when their daughter Alice was just three weeks old and Henrietta returned to Australia to her continue nursing career.

In Australia Henrietta married Walter Bush, a shopkeeper in Sydney and they had a son, Harry. Walter and Henrietta owned hotels in Sydney, Inverell, and Kiama. When Walter died, Henrietta decided to build a hotel in Shellharbour.

The new ‘Ocean Beach’ Hotel was built by Lewis and Tyler for Mrs. Henrietta Bush in 1929, and advertised as a new Tourist Hotel, ‘an ornament to Shellharbour and South Coast. Facing the driftway with one of the oldest titles in respect of a grant stands the beautiful new building that will certainly place Shellharbour on the map in a tourist sense and gain for it appreciation of one of the prettiest spots on the coast’. (Kiama Independent 4 October 1930).

The new hotel could accommodate 60 guests and was built to cater to the tourist trade. The rooms were described as both artistic and modern while the tiled and marble bathrooms had hot and cold reticulated water with the latest in showers and fittings. The stained glass windows of the dining room opened to a tiled verandah complete with afternoon tea tables decorated in gold and black.

The Ocean Beach still stands today, providing patrons with beautiful views over the little harbour at the Village. It has served the Shellharbour Village community for over 80 years.

Tongarra Museum has many objects in the collection relating to Henrietta Bush. Her portrait is used as a logo for the museum in recognition of her work as a nurse, the establishment of the Ocean Beach Hotel and her pioneering of the tourist trade in the area.



Henrietta Lewis (Bush) c.1890.
Shellharbour Images Shellharbour City Libraries.



The Ocean Beach Hotel Shellharbour c1929.
Shellharbour Images Shellharbour City Libraries.