Wolfe’s Schnapps is advertised on the bar windows, fixtures for the weekend’s football clashes at Wade Park are on the balcony and the streets are quiet.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The site of today’s bustling Hotel Canobolas on the corner of Summer Street and Lords Place was a different place about 100 years ago when the earlier Club Hotel building was there.
A rare 1915 photo is part of a unique collection revealing how Orange looked many years ago that has been discovered with the public release of records covering our hotels.
The Australian National University Archives section has obtained photographs and historic cards compiled by hotel inspectors employed by former leading brewer Tooth and Company.
Inspectors travelled around NSW to record updated details for Tooth’s head office on each pub.
They drilled down to details including how many kegs of beer were sold, rent the licensees paid each year, the number of accommodation rooms, the facilities offered and how much trade was with Tooths.
The cards, from the collection of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre which collects business records from Australian companies and trade unions, have been obtained by the ANU for public use.
At least 16 Orange hotels, many of which have either closed down or changed names since the details were recorded on yellow cards by the inspectors, are included in the collection.
The Central Western Daily focusses today on the Hotel Canobolas.
The current day hotel was officially opened in 1939 after the previous Club Hotel [also named the Club House Hotel] was demolished.
Apart from the photographs the cards give an insight into the day-to-day running of the hotels.
One covering the Canobolas from 1929-1939 reveals the sign on the pub was changed from the Club House to the Canobolas on April 11, 1938.
And it records there were no less than five licensees from 1929-1933.
There is also a note from the Orange Leader newspaper of October 12, 1936 that Tooheys would rebuild the hotel for a cost of between 30,000-35,000 pounds, complete with 48-50 bedrooms, within 12 months.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below …
David Fitzsimons
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
