Oral history locates this building as just south of the junction of the Tilpa – Wilcannia and Tilpa – Wanaaring roads, in the immediate vicinity of the last Tilpa Post Office.
On the 15 November 1878, the licence of the “Wee Water” was transferred to John Luffman, and so began an association between the Luffman family and Tilpa hotel licences in the district, which was to last for over a century. Luffman was granted a temporary licence for a bar at the Tilpa races, so horse racing must have been a big event this early in the village’s history, after all Tilpa did not have a post office at this time.
John and Mary Luffman continued to run the Wee Water Hotel until mid-1883, when they left due to the ill health of John. This was caused by injuries received in evicting some rowdy patrons from the hotel.
Winifred Thompson, a friend of the Luffman family, took over the licence of the “Wee Water” in their absence. On her licence the location of the hotel was shown as “Wee Water”, whereas the two previous licences show the location as “Killara, Darling River”.
On her 1884 and 1885 hotel licences, Thompson gave the location of the hotel as “Tilpa”. This was the first time that this name appeared on any hotel licence, despite the fact that the Postal Receiving Office had been opened there in 1880.
The end of the hotel licence was not the end of the forty-acre block, however. Despite many changes in licensees, the land had never been transferred from the name of John Luffman, and he remained as the nominal owner until the Department of Main Roads resumed a small strip for the bridge approach and access road on 19 August 1963. The rest of the block remained in John Luffman’s name until it was resumed by the Crown in April 1972, and part of it was vested in the Shire of Central Darling, to be used for access to the Tilpa airstrip and for community facilities. The balance of the block, including where the former “Wee Water” hotel building stands, was transferred to Frederick Davidson, the Post Master.
The Royal Hotel
The last hotel to be licensed in the Tilpa district is the only one to survive to the present day – The Royal.
The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
Royal Hotel, Tilpa, Bar.
The love of a staunch, true man,
The love of a baby unafraid,
Have existed since time began,
But the greatest love, the love of loves,
Even greater than that of a mother,
Is the passionate, tender and infinite love,
Of one drunken bum for another.
The first reference to the Royal Hotel in Tilpa comes from a letter dated 24 April 1894, from the Post Master, John B. Guillier, to The Dept. P.M.G., Sydney. In it he wrote:
I beg to report that the premises of which this (post) office is a room adjoining same has again changed hands, the present owner being Mr. E. M. Perrott who has turned the premises into a Hotel called the Royal.
John B. Guillier
Arthur D. Cotton obtained a spirit licence for his store in 1882, but then in 1883 this licence was in the name of T. Samuel Luke. Before he came to Tilpa, Thomas Luke had been a storekeeper in Wilcannia as early as 1869, and in association with Thomas Thompson, A. Kirkpatrick & Charles Neall Vaughan (the firm of Thompson, Luke & Co.), obtained a spirit licence for their store in Mitchell St., Bourke in 1878-1880. Luke retained the spirit licence in Tilpa, and presumably the store, in 1884.
In 1885 the spirit licence was transferred to George Admans who, in association with Charles Lush, traded as G. Admans & Company. In 1880 Lush, an agent, had been associated with Arthur Cotton and they went by the name of “Cotton, Lush & Co” when, in that year, they wrote to the Post Master General requesting the establishment of a Telegraph Office at Tilpa.
In a letter from George Admans to his brothers and sisters in Canada, on 15 February 1885, he writes:
I have been so confoundedly busy since taking possession of this place, that I have hardly had time for my meals. The place and business had been so neglected that it has taken me up to the present to get it into working order. I must now try my descriptive powers, the private residence is a neat four room veranda cottage, with garden, a few grape vines etc. & fenced in with wire, an underground wine and spirit cellar, wool & retail stores detached within 50yards of a splendid river & where navigable steamers with their barges passing and repassing, that is our only I may say excitement, it has been navigable for a fortnight since our arrival_….. also 155 acres of land about ten herd of horses for different purposes such as saddle & buggy.
In Nancy Cato’s novel All the Rivers Run, she wrote,
“At Tilpa there was a licensed hotel, though the quality of the liquor was little better than at the riverside shanties, with their sly-grog disguised as “orange squash”. The hotelkeeper had a large lead-lined coffin on the counter which he kept full of rum, ladling it out at threepence a nobbler. He liked to have it ready, he said, in case he should “pop off sudden,” and he thought the fact of its having been used as a container for spirits would help to preserve him when he was buried in it.”
Unfortunately this vivid picture is not dated and cannot be authenticated, but it makes a good story.
In 1927 there must have been plans for a change in ownership of the hotel, for a representative of Tooth & Co. reported that it was:
A wooden building with iron roof consisting of a main portion containing first class dining room, 2 parlours, 8 bedrooms and large wire gauze covered sleeping out space, also a detached building consisting of kitchen and second class dining room. About 30 yards away is extensive stabling. There are 2 acres of land. Insurances are – Hotel 800, Stables 200 and Furniture 300. The price, with possession, is 1,450 cash. Beer trade averages about 14 cases a month. Whilst in the district I met W. Michael, well borer, at present working with his boring plant on Goorimpa Station, who is prepared to buy a lease from the Company for 600 for term of 5 years with 3. per week rent. He can put up 350 to 400 in cash and wants the Company to advance the rest, repayments distributed over the 5 years. He does not want to realise on his tractor and well boring plant, as he intends to still continue his work in that line by putting his plant in charge of his foreman. Mr. Michael seemed to be a very decent man, and knows the district and people thoroughly, I recommend this proposition for favourable consideration
–E. Brown, 30 September 1927.
In 1933 a letter from Tooth & Co. describes Tilpa as:
“a small unimportant village on the Darling River, on the road between Wilcannia and Bourke, and the trade is very small, with the sales being mainly spirits and no bulk beer. The total trade for the period September 1932 to August 1933 was 118 ($236) of spirits and nine dozen bottled beer. In the previous year it had been 132 ($264) of spirits and seven dozen beer.
Over a door of the bar of the Royal Hotel, Tilpa, is a sign:
“This bar is dedicated to those splendid fellows who make drinking a pleasure, who reach contentment prior to capacity, and whatever the drink, can hold it, and remain GENTLEMEN.“
Today
Tilpa Hotel
Grown from the river boat trade along the Darling River, the hotel and pub is at the heart of Tilpa and a favourite attraction for both travellers and locals. Established in 1894, the Tilpa Hotel is full of character and includes a bistro and accommodation. The pub’s walls, made of timber and corrugated iron, are …