Four hotels jostled for trade when passing drovers, teamsters and shearers arrived at the staging post on the junction of the roads to Hungerford and Barringun, in the old days when the big mobs of a thousand or more head of cattle came from stations far to the north into Bourke railhead. The ‘Judas bullock’ led them across the span to their fate.
When refugees from Bourke and Brewarrina crowded into a tent city that sprung up in North Bourke during the 1890 Darling River flood, Murphy’s, The Bridge, Overlanders and the Occidental hotels all did a roaring trade. Unfortunately, The Occidental blocked the path of horse and bullock wagons swinging onto the North Bourke Bridge – the oldest moveable span bridge in Australia. The publican refused to sell, so in 1903 the bridge access was bent around the pub!
The bridge opened in 1883 and witnessed the passage of many of the 200 paddle-wheelers and barges plying the river-trade with Murray River ports. It also heard the cries of Afghan cameleers near the end of their long plod from stations further west, urging their long lines of beasts across, with a wool bale slung either side. The village is now a staging post for triple road trains. In 2022 the present ‘Northy Pub’ replaced the 1890 original, which was destroyed by fire in 2010.
Bourke Hotels
Take a pub crawl through history.
Visit North Bourke along these adjoining Pub Routes. Discover more routes and pub history.
North Bourke Attractions.
Visitor information from the Bourke Shire Council and Visit Bourke website
