James Squire, after three seasons of toil,…

James Squire, after three seasons of toil, becomes in 1805 the first brewer in Australia to successfully cultivate hops.

A First Fleet convict transported to Australia, first officially brewing beer in Australia in 1790, Squire later founded Australia's first commercial brewery making beer using barley and hops in 1798, although John Boston appears to have opened a brewery making a form of corn beer two years earlier.

The discovery of the British Army's trafficking of rum in 1802 had created an uproar in the fledgling colony.

Governor King was gravely concerned about the corruption spread by rum, so he began to officially endorse the brewing of beer.

English hops and brewing equipment are regularly transported on convict ships at the government's expense; in fact, part of HMS Porpoise's botanical cargo was hops.

There were three parties that were the most likely recipients of the shipment of hops, those being the Government Gardens; John Boston (a potential rival for Australia's first brewer); and James Squire.

It is unclear what became of the hops on the HMS Porpoise, as there is no evidence of them being propagated within the first two years of its arrival in Sydney on November 6, 1800.