Exchange Hotel

Walgett’s first hotel

Walgett was a remote frontier outpost that was slowly attracting the attention of speculators, particularly from the Liverpool Plains and the Hunter Valley. One of these speculators was George Hoath, who arrived in Walgett from Singleton around March/April 1860, where he was a storekeeper at the Railway Stores. He appears to have been in some financial difficulty in the Hunter Valley, selling all his stock and trade, closing all his accounts and operating on strictly cash terms before his departure, taking“nothing but new goods up the country”.

On 11 July 1861, George Hoath posted a notice in the Maitland Mercury seeking the recovery of two strayed horses, citing his address as ‘Rose Inn, Walgett’ – there are no other recorded instances of the Rose Inn, however, and this may be the first of Walgett’s hotels.

The Warrena Hotel

The Warrena Hotel was in existence in 1861 with George Hoath as licensee. Hoath was Walgett’s mail contractor in 1861 and 1862 and there are speculations that the post office for the fledgling settlement was in fact housed within the hotel. The location of the Warrena Hotel is not precisely known, but a calculated guess is that it was on the corner of Fox and Warrena streets where the Shell Service Station is now situated. This guess is on the basis that the Exchange Hotel, which replaced the Warrena, was also considered to be on this site.

George Hoath, “storekeeper and licensed victualler”, died in 1863 leaving his estate to his widow Mary Ann who continued to operate the hotel through typical bush tribulations like flood in 1864, where “…at Mrs Houth’s Warrena Inn and stores the water reached about 18 inches high, fortunately they had most of their goods packed on a temporary platform.” In the same year a haystack fire also threatened the building.

Mary Ann married Charles Abraham in 1865 and he became the publican of the Warrena, with George’s brother, John being recorded as the licensee in 1867 and 1868. However an associate, Frederick Cross, was behind the counter in 1869. John Hoath offered up the hotel in 1870 in the following advertisement in the Maitland Mercury:

“First Class Hotel, Walgett; To Let, A first class hotel known as the Warrena Hotel, containing 10 rooms with good, detached kitchen and stables, and at present in the occupation of Mr Frederick Cross. For full particulars apply to Mr John Hoath, Walgett.

By 1872 the building known as the ‘Old Warrena Hotel (Hoaths)’ had been converted to a private residence and was occupied by a police magistrate, Constable John Staunton, who renovated and re-opened the hotel after resigning his office. It appears as though the Warrena Hotel was consigned to history at this point, as Staunton’s new licence, granted in 1875, stipulates “the Commercial Hotel, Fox Street, Walgett.” The Commercial Hotel was open for business in 1876, however, by 1879 Staunton seems to have preferred a new location in the “commodious pile of buildings…in Euroka Street (known as the “Commercial Hotel)”, with newspapers reporting on the 8 November:

“Mr. John Staunton, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel, moved into his new premises adjoining the Walgett Stores to-day, and we wish him every success and plenty of business in his new house.”

The Exchange Hotel

The first reference which can be found to this hotel was in 1880 when John Apted was licensee. The hotel was at the same site as the Warrena, and briefly, the Commercial, with the Maitland Mercury reporting in January 1880 “A publican’s license was granted to Mr John Apted this week, for the inn premises recently vacated by Mr. John Staunton” . With the name ‘Commercial’ still in use by Staunton, it’s possible that Apted found inspiration in the shuffle of premises on the site that prompted his new business, and ‘The Exchange Hotel’ was born.

Apted’s tenure was short-lived, and in July 1882 (along with notification of a new licence being granted for a hotel in Lightning Ridge), a transfer was granted: “…from John Apted, of the Exchange Hotel, to Washington Harpur, late of Weetailbah: and several extensions of time for improvements were granted.”

Washington Harpur appears to be the son of Charles Harpur, considered to be Australia’s first bush poet. ‘Mr. W. Harpur’s Exchange Hotel’ (probably also recorded mistakenly as ‘Harpus Hotel’) was popular for a few years at least, with a colourful recollection recorded in 1889: “During a sojourn of six long and weary months in this town of sin, sweat, and sorrow. I did little else but perspire, swear, and drink lemonade at Wash. Harpur’s well-known hotel. It happened about the year ’83 I rusticated in Walgett for the period mentioned.”

In 1884 the hotel was destroyed in a large fire, and with it Mr Harpur’s tenure:

“Large Fire at Walgett. Walgett, Wednesday. Eleven houses were burned to the ground this morning in Fox Street, Walgett. Patterson’s Hotel, Harpur’s Exchange, Wright and Chadwick’s new store, a bowling alley, and a hairdresser’s and watchmaker’s shop were destroyed… fifteen buildings and outhouses were burned to the ground”

Singleton Argus, Saturday 5 January 1884

This was not to be the end for the Exchange Hotel, with reports in 1886 that “Mr Chadwick is building a fine hotel and has applied for a licence” which went on to be re-opened by G. H. Chadwick, with improvements made in 1889: “Mr. Chadwick, of the Exchange Hotel, evidently believes in the future of Walgett, otherwise he would hardly have expended so much capital in enlarging his hotel. Lately he has added (to his already extensive premises) a large room 32 by 20ft, in which the show and other meetings are now held. Six bedrooms have also been added to the original building”

William Dodd, who previously held the license for the Mercadool Hotel, took over the operation by 1896 (and probably prior), and the Exchange Hotel became known simply as ‘Dodd’s’ to locals for the remainder of its life, when it was again destroyed by fire, this time for the last time, in 1918. It was not rebuilt.