Originally to be called the ‘Cosmopolitan’, the hotel opened in October 1888 under the sign of the house, ‘Post Office Hotel.’ Luscombe may have built the Post Office Hotel, but it was Patrick “Paddy” Fitzgerald, whose name became almost synonymous with the grand public house.
Paddy, or “Fitz” as he was known, was proprietor of the Royal Mail Hotel from 1886 until 1891, when he moved to Bourke and purchased the Post Office Hotel from Luscombe, who then built a new hotel at the corner of Mitchell and Warraweena Streets which he called the Federal Hotel. Fitz immediately set about enlarging the already ample hotel, and under his proprietorship it became the leading hotel in Bourke and indeed the district.
An active townsman and keen follower of horse racing, Fitz was widely respected and liked by all. He remained ‘mine host’ of the Post Office Hotel until his death in 1922. Fitz’s wife Annie Fitzgerald (his third marriage), continued as licensee until 1939, when she was succeeded by her son, Kenneth Patrick Fitzpatrick.
The Post Office Hotel was sold at auction in 1956, bringing an end to almost 70 years of the Fitzgerald family’s proprietorship. The Post Office Hotel served its last drinks in 1994. Today the building is home to the NSW Outback Division of General Practice.
The Pubs & Breweries of Bourke
From its earliest days Bourke has always had a reputation as a drinking town and it’s no wonder as it was, in fact, founded by publicans!