Tattersall’s Hotel

The whole building was of impressive stature with horizontal weatherboard across its entire exterior, mirrored advertising on the street level verandah, wrought iron balustrades adorning the upper floor, and a large commercial façade advertising the name of the hotel and various brewers at different times.

The hotel sported an ‘excellent bar’ that was demarcated as both 1^st and 2^nd class, with two dining rooms (also 1^st and 2^nd class). There were 32 public bedrooms to accommodate travellers, but only two bathrooms. The premises also included stables, sheds, offices, a cottage and an enclosed paddock.

The Tattersalls Hotel was reported to have been in operation by 1880 when it was printed that a meeting was held at “Tattersall’s (Staunton’s) Hotel on the 7^th instant“, however this is most likely the Commercial Hotel which John Staunton was known to occupy at that time. The hotel was reported again in 1883, with the Sydney Mail describing Walgett as having “hotels known as the Imperial and Tattersall’s’“. While this is not false, it is also slightly misleading, as there were certainly other hotels in operation in Walgett at this time.

The hotel had a relatively long life for a wooden pub, and survived to see the 20^th century arrive, and the flavour of local news change from the perfunctory to the colourful, as was the case with the 1911 publican’s misfortunes:

“Mr. Blackburn, proprietor of Tattersall’s Hotel, Walgett, who broke one of his legs in a sulky accident a few months ago, had almost fully recovered when he slipped, on some orange peel, and has broken the same leg again.“

The hotel also bore witness to the tragic loss of life in World War 1 when the subsequent community war memorial was built directly in front of the hotel, on the major intersection of the town.

One of the big stories of the day was the loss of two racehorses in a stable fire at the back of the hotel in 1925. While there were no other injuries, this blaze foreshadowed the huge fire of the following year, at the time said to have been the ,most serious fire in the history of Walgett. The damage was estimated to have cost the town £20,000. The fire, which broke out in the adjoining hairdresser’s salon, also destroyed a garage, stock and station offices, a store, and even leapt the road to threaten the Imperial Hotel and to destroy the Bank of New South Wales premises. The aged timber of the Tattersall’s Hotel had been drying out for at least 46 years in the hot Walgett sun, and was short work for the fire. This marked the end of the Tattersall’s Hotel.