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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...

The 20 Mile Pub was located on a stock route west of Winton until it was sold and dismantled in the 1950s. The Winton Historical Society has a photograph taken in the 1920s and is trying to identify the people and the car in the image. The Society's Bruce Collins says back in the 1920s the pub did a good trade from the traveling public. "The station owners would come in on their buggies and sulkies and whatnot and always welcomed," he said. "They'd have a corned beef sandwich and possibly a beer or a rum, I imagine." There was another rest stop 40 miles out of Winton, which was where many travelers stayed overnight. Mr. Collins says as transport became more reliable the rest stops were bypassed, which led to the demise of the 20 Mile Pub. He says the pub was an integral part of the district for many years. "It wasn't the Hilton, but it was a piece of history," he said. Source: www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2013/11/28/3900792.htm#:~:tex....

The sugar industry spurred Mossman's development. Two galvanized iron hotels were moved to Front Street from Craiglie in 1894, to become the Royal Hotel and Mossman Hotel, and the Queens Hotel was built in 1896. Mossman was linked to Port Douglas by a tramway in 1900 (sugar was shipped from Port Douglas from 1897 to 1958), and a tramway depot was located at the corner of Mill and Front Streets, near the Mossman Triangle. The town had five hotels by 1910, including the Exchange, Mossman, Royal, Post Office, and Queens. After the 1911 cyclone damaged buildings in both Mossman and Port Douglas, businesses and government buildings located at Port Douglas gravitated to Mossman. One of the early sugar suppliers to the Mossman Central Mill was Denis O'Brien, whose wife Teresa ran the first Exchange Hotel. O'Brien operated a hotel in Cooktown with Teresa from 1874, moved to Port Douglas in 1877, and opened the North Australian Hotel (now the Central Hotel). In 1893 O'Brien selected land near Mossman.[10] He grew sugar and was a director of the Mossman Central Mill, with his son Edward Joseph O'Brien (one of eight children) later serving as chairman of directors for many years. FW Buchanan built the first Exchange Hotel for the O'Brien's c. 1896, and Teresa O'Brien is listed in the 1897 Pugh's Almanac as running the Exchange Hotel in Mossman. In 1904 the eldest O'Brien daughter, Kate, married Daniel J Kirwan, who became the licensee of the hotel in 1905, the year Denis O'Brien died at his property "Finlayvale". The Exchange Hotel was originally one storey, but had a second storey by 16 March 1911 when a cyclone destroyed the upper floor. The hotel was repaired and continued to serve the town, despite being damaged again in a 1920 cyclone. Licensees of the hotel between 1914 and 1932 included EJ O'Brien, Sarah Ann Agnew, William Hyslop, Ellen Maud Petersen, Helena Norman McKenna, Teresa Nugent (nee O'Brien), and Ellen Constance O'Brien. Source: www.wikiwand.com/en/Exchange_Hotel,_Mossman#/History