Pubs & Breweries of Mount Hope

Today, if you pass through the old mining town of Mount Hope, it is hard to believe it once supported a population in the hundreds, several hotels, and a brewery. 

On 18 August 1883, The Hillston News reported that “a gentleman from Parkes” was about to build a brewery. The journalist opined that if he brewed a good beer, he would do a good trade once the hot weather set in. The hot weather did set in and he did do a good trade. In 1885, the brewery changed hands, with The Australian Town & Country Journal reporting on 27 June that the new man’s first brewing was “excellent” and “it is really a treat in this far back country to get a drop of good beer”. Alas, the good drop was not to last long. Mining, always a risky business, went into the doldrums in Mount Hope that year and the brewery licence, which had been in the name of William Small, expired and was never taken up again. 

In 1873 some ‘very rich specimens of copper ore brought from Mount Hope’ caused quite a stir with investors, and by 1881 smelting works and a community of 500 people were calling Mt Hope home. Four Hotels flourished in this time, as the New Mount Hope Copper Mining Company built infrastructure, installed machinery and commenced mining and smelting operations at Mount Hope. The first of the licensed premises was the Mount Hope Hotel in March 1881, followed by William Clark’s Royal Hotel (July), Thomas Saunders’ Albion Hotel (August) and John Lees’ Commercial Hotel (November 1881). In September 1882 a licence was granted to James Lyell for the Great Central Hotel at South Mount Hope.

The Australian Town and Country Journal reported on Mount Hope on the 27 June, 1885, noting;

“BEER – The brewery has changed hands. First brewing of the new man was last week, and it was excellent; it really is a treat in this far back country to get a drop of good beer.”

In 1901 the Hillston Spectator and Lachlan Advertiser reported that;

“…There are two hotels at Mount Hope. The licence of the Royal is held by My Lou Mozzini, a popular ex-Hillston resident, and the Commercial is in the hands of Mr T. E. Thompson. Both hotels provide accommodation for a large number of boarders…”

By 1927, due largely to fluctuations in the cost of mining and the price of copper, in an article outlining the railway extensions at Hillston, Mount Hope was described in the Murrumbidgee Irrigator in the following way:

“…Twelve miles from Matakana, there exists that pathetic, but not infrequent spectacle in Australia, a decayed mining township. It was well named Mount Hope. It has been living on hopes and memories for years. Boasting one time of two copper mines one of which was going to rival the mighty Anaconda mine of Butte, Montana, U.S.A., it was something more than it is to-day, almost a mere geographical name…”

Today