Entertainment
13 March, 2025
Pubs of the past not forgotten
WHAT better way to learn a bit about history than by going on a pub crawl?
A new companion book by the writer of the popular Herberton Hotels has been launched about such establishments around the Irvinebank region.
Released by Wondecla local Colin Purchase, Irvinebank District Hotels takes the reader on a journey to the towns Watsonville, Bakerville, Irvinebank, Montalbion, Stannary Hills, Orient Camp, Hales Siding, Rocky Bluffs and Boonmoo.
The book covers the 44 hotels that were in that district, with information garnered from the wealth of information at the Herberton Mining Centre.
Mr Purchase, a former banker and administration manager from Queensland, said his writing came out of a need for “new purpose” after he retired. He began volunteering at the mining centre and buried himself in the history of the region.
He found inspiration for his first book from a poster up on the wall of the old hotels in the Herberton area dating back to 1884.
He published the Herberton Hotels book last year and after its success, began researching the history of the hotels and towns in the hills further west of Cairns.
“Some of the hotels were bush shanties, others quite substantial two-storey structures,” he said. “When a town declined, whole hotels were dismantled and moved to another town.
“Towns with small populations had a more than generous number of hotels to quench the thirst of the residents and transient miners of the day.”
The latest book includes a map of the area, and while the hotels “don’t exist anymore” the locations “are accessible with a 4WD”.
He also includes the rare anecdote or word-of-mouth tale, but they are hard to come by.
Mr Purchase said apart from mining, the area was known for growing tobacco in the 1930s, with farms in Watsonville, Montalbion, Hales Siding and Boonmoo.
The hotels that sprang up also followed the same route as the Stannary Hills tramway, which opened in 1902, and was an important connector between the towns.
“This tramway was used to transport firewood and ore to the Irvinebank smelters, ore to Rocky Bluff from Stannary Hills, goods for the towns and provided a connection at Boonmoo to the main line to Chillagoe, Mareeba and Cairns,” he added.
So what next for this hotel detective?
“Actually, I’m starting to look at the hotels in the Atherton Tablelands, within the regional council boundaries,” he said, agreeing it makes a nice book trifecta.
“There were 66 hotels once, and now only 12 trading – which I’d just say is just economics.”
“I used to drink at a few,” he added, with a laugh.
No doubt he will enjoy the research.
Copies of Irvinebank District Hotels can be bought online at www.colin-purchase.square.site and at Loudoun House Museum and Herberton Mining Centre.
