The location is more synonymous with railways than with hotels, with the railway station being opened in 1906 as ‘Collarendabri,’ then ‘Collarendabri East’ then finally ‘Pockataroo’ in 1919. The location is near the terminus of the ‘Pockataroo line’ from Burren Junction, which never reached its envisaged destination of Collarenabri. Nonetheless, where there are people and workers, there will be found a hotel, and Pockataroo boasted the impressive Federal Hotel about which frustratingly little is known. The hotel definitely existed in 1900 with W. O’Toole as licensee, and is reported as being totally destroyed by fire on 18 October 1925, at which time it was owned by L. Quinlan with the loss estimated at £6000. But events appear to have been otherwise unremarkable at Pokataroo, as it is almost never reported.
