Charles Carl

Charles Carl was a well-known character among the early settlers in the frontier country of Far West NSW. Also known as ‘German Charlie’ and ‘Snake Juice Charlie’, his disregard for the law, along with his recipe for snake juice, made him something of a legend.

Carl came to South Australia from Hannover in 1855. He arrived in the Barrier Ranges in 1864 as a ‘bullocky’, or bullock driver. This was before the discovery of any mineral riches in the area; before a station hand thought he had found gold in Silverton (or perhaps lied about finding gold), bringing prospectors to the area. Broken Hill was still the vast sheep station of Mt Gipps, where Carl found work. He had a side-line in selling an ounce or two of rum to drovers and station hands from his personal supply which, by all accounts, was substantial.

Carl soon acquired 40 acres and a liquor license and opened his first grog shop, the Poolamacca Inn, serving rum and beer made from native hops. His ‘snake juice’ recipe was published in The Barrier Miner in 1892 as follows: "Decant half a keg of rum, brandy or whisky and replace with water. Add 2 sticks of tobacco, 1 bottle of Worcestershire sauce and 1 bottle of Pery Davis Pain Killer to give colour and kick.” Unsurprisingly, the Poolamacca quickly developed a reputation for being disruptive.

There are many stories about Charles Carl, aka German Charlie, aka Snake Juice Charlie: from cattle theft and several other kinds of swindling, to being connected with the discovery of silver that eventually made Broken Hill famous. It seems that he had a certain moral flexibility, and that he knew an opportunity when he saw one. That’s how fortunes were made in nineteenth century Australia. Carl’s earliest customers were shepherds, station hands and drovers, but soon he also had a steady clientele of miners in his drinking establishments. He bought more land, agisted horses, lent money, and invested in mining enterprises. He ran a hotel in Silverton and then built his own: the Nevada Hotel, which was also his family home and a store.

Carl was known to have friends amongst the Wilyakali, the displaced traditional owners of the Barrier Ranges, whose population was devastated within fifty years of white settlement. His Wilyakali friends called him ‘King of the Barrier’.