From shanties to landmarks: Cairns’ early hotels
Image: P00709 Cairns’ first hotel. Jockey Club hotel, Abbott St, October 1876
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Early hotels, Abbott St, in 1878: James Burke’s Club House Hotel and the Leichhardt Hotel on the left, and the two storey Skiffins’ Royal Hotel on the extreme right with Tom Boughton’s Tattersalls Hotel next to it.
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William Pryn’s Lord Wolseley Hotel, 1886.
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Michael Boland’s Camp Oven Creek Hotel, near the No. 15 Tunnel, 1888. Boland sold the hotel in 1889 when construction moved on and began storekeeping in Cairns. He prospered, and in 1911, built the iconic Boland’s department store.
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Main street of Kamerunga township with railway navvies camp; formerly called Barronville, 1889
Photographer: Alfred Atkinson
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Myola – site of contractors’ houses/camp for 3rd section of Cairns-Herberton railway, 1893
Photographer: Charles Handley
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Terminus Hotel and Dillons Store, Redlynch, later known as Redlynch Hotel. c. 1890
Photographer: Unknown
When Cairns was established in September 1876, it quickly took shape as a rough and opportunistic settlement. Publicans and shanty keepers were often among the first to arrive, following new ports and gold routes, but regulation lagged behind. Licensing laws struggled to keep pace with demand, and many early establishments operated without approval. This may explain why the town’s first “hotel” was known as the Jockey Club.
By October, most newly allocated town lots were already occupied, and one observer noted that “in three cases out of every four a grog shanty is established… the whole place is nothing but a collection of shanties.” In a town of around 500 people, informal drinking houses were a defining feature of daily life.
These early hotels were among the first places people gathered in the new settlement. Located close to the wharves at the end of Abbott Street, they ranged from rough timber structures to more established buildings such as the Mining Exchange Hotel and Robert Skiffins’ Royal Hotel, considered one of the best in town. Others were short-lived, disappearing within a year as fortunes shifted.
That instability defined Cairns’ early years. Publicans followed opportunity, moving between Cairns, Smithfield and Port Douglas as each rose and fell in response to changing trade routes. When the goldfields traffic shifted north and a cyclone struck in 1878, every hotel in Cairns was affected. Some owners sold out, others adapted. The Leichhardt Hotel, for example, became a telegraph office. Even apparent success could be short-lived. Skiffins sold the Royal Hotel just days before it burned down, and later faced financial hardship after returning south.
By the mid-1880s, Cairns began to stabilise. The decision in 1883 to establish the railway to the Tablelands marked a turning point. Anticipating growth, more permanent, two-storey hotels were constructed. Among them was the Cairns Hotel on Lake Street, built in 1885 by George Hides and Duncan McColl. With its rooftop lookout, wide verandahs, billiard room and 20 bedrooms, it became the town’s leading hotel and still stands today as Hides Hotel.
Beyond the town centre, hotels also emerged along transport routes and developing industries. South of Cairns, establishments such as the Racecourse Hotel on Skeleton Creek and the Lord Wolseley at Woree serviced travellers heading inland. Along the railway line, temporary hotels followed construction gangs, appearing and disappearing as work progressed. One such venture helped fund Michael Boland’s later success in Cairns, where he built the city’s first department store in 1911.
As Cairns marks 150 years of shared history, these early hotels offer insight into how the town developed. Some were short-lived, others endured, but together they supported a growing population and played a central role in the life of the early settlement.
