The lake, previously known as ‘Sutherland’s Lake’, and later ‘Lauradale Lake’ must have been an oasis at times when it was full of water. A conditional licence was granted to E. P. Mitton in January 1899. However, the establishment appears to have been closed in 1920 and later destroyed by fire in 1931. There are several accounts of the hotel, the most famous being the one regarding travelling with Henry Lawson.
From the History of Bourke:
“From Gumbalie, Lawson and Gordon made across to the Hungerford Road, to a Government Tank (Sutherland’s Lake in Gordon’s memory) where water in the troughing was supplied by means of an oil-engine pump. Although it was a wet season and at times they were walking through water, Lawson always carried a water-bag and made sure it was full. He was also a “fussy” swagmen; his swag was always precisely rolled, with the towel having its ends tied to the binding-straps, and his billy had a kind of sheath pulled over it when they were tramping.”
From Roy James Dunk’s memories in the History of Bourke:
“We reached Lauradale a little after breakfast time. There was a pub there then; it wasn’t a very elaborate building and the dining room had an earth floor. We had a drink of tea and a little to eat – I know that I was very hungry and I still was after I had finished what there was for breakfast. While I was eating my breakfast I stretched my legs under the table and I touched something and heard a grunt. I looked, and there was a sow pig suckling about 8 little piglets: I at least had company.
We changed horses at Lauradale and then headed for Fords Bridge. We were at this stage of our long journey running several hours late as the going was very heavy after the rain and it became worse as the rain continued on and off for the next couple of days. We pushed along slowly but without incident to Fords Bridge.”
Kevin Murray, a one-time resident of Bourke, wrote the following piece while researching his family history:
LAURADALE PUB
In 1906, William Murphy brought Hessie, his 18-year-old Irish bride to Lauradale, 26 miles from Bourke on the road to Hungerford. He ran stock on 42,000 acres of hard, stony country, while Hessie toiled hard daily to raise her growing brood of children and run the pub.
On the woodstove under a tin roof she cooked for the steady stream of travellers, drovers, stock buyers or families staying overnight. Water was hauled from Kelly’s Camp Bore 6 miles distant. There was no bathroom, just a jug of water and a dish in every room.
Breakfast bacon and eggs were served from a dinner wagon and then the hostess scrubbed the long white pine table with a bath brick. Next, she supervised the children’s correspondence lessons in the telephone office. Days could be punctuated by turbaned Afghans with long lines of camels, Indian hawkers and swaggies looking for a handout of tea, sugar or corned beef.
After dinner, the men retired to card room, while Hessie scrubbed out the bar. Later she might produce a mouth organ. Then she squeezed potato peelings and hops into empty beer bottles to produce yeast for the next day’s bread-making, before settling at the treadle sewing machine to make clothes for the family.
The Murphy’s gave up the licence in 1921.
