pub

As the beer is pulled in Joe’s Waterhole, Eumundi, stories of past beer-loving local legends are told. A former Queensland boxing champion and local larrikin, Joe Whiting traded his cane field for the hotel, previously known as the Commercial in the 1860s. Joe was famous for his mischievous behavior. A story is told about how Joe would glue money onto the bar and after someone would leave, he’d call out to them that they had left their change behind. Of course, when they tried to pick the money up it would be stuck there to great amusement of Joe. Source: www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Council/News-Centre/Backward...

Joseph’s son William Burrell purchased the first three town lots subdivided in 1890 and constructed Eumundi’s first building – the Railway Hotel. It was renamed the Eumundi Hotel in 1900. After a second story was added it was renamed the Commercial Hotel… this one burnt down. For any visitors to Eumundi today, Joe’s Waterhole marks the site of the original Railway Hotel building. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/discovering-eumundi-heritage-and-...:

The well-known double-storied sawn timber Metropole Hotel was built on the corner of Highland and Ipswich streets in 1907 with timber supplied by Blank Brothers sawmill, and opened by J. Williams. The fire which destroyed the magnificent Metropole in November 1932 was the most spectacular ever in Esk. The glow could be seen for miles and the flames rose to one hundred feet. It happened late on a Saturday afternoon when most of the townspeople were out playing sport and there were only a few men in the hotel. Thought to have been started by a 'dumper' (cigarette-butt) upstairs on a mat, the fire caused £5,000 worth of damage. A new hotel was built immediately. The Esk Shire Council approved the plans in July 1933 and construction of the £3,000 double-story building commenced in September 1933. Ruby E. Beath was the licensee and she sold it to the Blank family in March 1934. The Metropole Hotel lasted until October 1974 when Mrs Violet Heck hosted a party marking the surrender of the license. The building had been sold to J. Samios of Sydney in 1971 who planned to erect a motel and restaurant on the site. During the mid-1970s the new owner, Russell Dore, spent $50,000 on renovations, opening the Staging Post Inn restaurant, and planning a crafts market upstairs; success grew from his ideas. He sold its enterprise to John and Marilyn Gott; Dianne Compton bought the Inn in August 1981 and converted it to a guest house and restaurant, complete with hotel ghosts. Source: www.somerset.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/103/191-commercial...

Jim Martin was the first publican of Helensburgh’s re-built Centennial Hotel in 1915. The original old single-storey timber Centennial sat on the opposite side of the road. It closed and had its license transferred to a swanky two-storey brick building in May 1915. The owners, the Hanley family, in partnership with brewers Tooth and Company opened the new Centennial in May 1915. Jim was put in charge of Hanley’s new pub. Born in 1885, his first forte into the hotel trade came in 1913 when he took the reins of the Hotel Pacifique on the Queensland NSW border at Tweed Heads. Jim was just 28. Tweed Heads’ tourist industry kept him and wife Christina in a profitable business for the short time they remained as hosts. Why he chose to leave such a profitable and thriving business to take up the license of a newly built pub in a small coal mining village on the NSW south coast remains a mystery. Source: timegents.com/2015/07/25/the-tweeds-heroic-publican/