The early hotels of “Dry Lake”
In 1868, the first of several government tanks linking to two rivers was sunk at the Dry Lake, and a hotel quickly followed.
The Emu Inn was established by Francis Henry Burslem, the appointed caretaker and toll collector at the government tank. Burslem was the son of an ex-British Army officer, and supposedly a direct descendant of James the First, King of Scotland.
Burslem held the hotel until 1871, briefly taking a job as the pound-keeper in Louth, and later was the manager of Lila Springs station, then owned by Arthur Wilson.
Although records are scarce, the inn seems to have continued operating in one form or another over the following years. In 1875, George Goldson was granted a wine, cider and perry licence for an establishment at “Burslem Lake” but that doesn’t seem to have stopped him from serving harder stuff, as he was twice pulled before the magistrate by police for serving liquor.
But after his second court appearance, Goldson applied for and was granted a full publican’s licence for The Lake Hotel in 1880.
Goldson would later be licensee of the Lake Eliza Hotel, where he died in 1901.
Warraweena Hotel
The best known sign of the house at Dry Lake was the Warraweena Hotel, which first appears in 1886, and traded continually until 1961.
John Clayton, a selector who had taken up 100 acres in the vicinity of the Dry Lake in 1882, was granted a Colonial Wine Licence in 1885 and then in 1886 applied for a publican’s license for the “Warra Weena” Hotel. But Clayton died just a year later and the hotel was taken over by his widow, Caroline.
In 1887, Caroline married John Robinson and together the couple grew the hotel into a thriving business, making substantial renovations to the building over the next few years and even adding a general store in 1890. Sadly, Caroline was to lose another husband, with John passing in 1893.
Disaster struck again in 1895, when the hotel was completely destroyed by fire. Caroline rebuilt but soon sold the Warraweena Hotel and left Bourke for Cunnamulla in Queensland.
The Warraweena Hotel had a succession of licensees over the next 50 years, but was again consumed by fire in 1959. While the hotel building was insured, it was never rebuilt and the licence was handed in.
Supposedly, ashes from the burnt hotel were added to a trophy donated to the local cricket competition by one-time licensee of the Warraweena Hotel, Fred Warmholl. Bourke’s own version of The Ashes.
