THE most commanding building in the township of Jugiong, in the Riverina region of New South Wales, is undoubtedly the Sir George Tavern.

An Irish settler, John Philip Sheahan, built the first Sir George Tavern on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in 1845 but it was washed away less than 10 years later in the floods of 1852.

Undeterred by this setback Sheahan decided to build something which would last forever. He brought stonemasons from Ireland and built the current Sir George Tavern which opened for business a few years later.

The Sir George Tavern is a monument to permanence with the walls being over 500cm thick. That permanence extends to the family. In 2004 the Sheahan family still ran the pub making it at the time the oldest family-run hotel in Australia.

The hotel was bought by Kate Hufton and her mother Liz Prater in 2015, and the pair have restored the Sir George to its former glory. The restoration came at a time that Jugiong started to become a tourist drawcard for Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

[The Farmer and Settler (Sydney) Friday 1 April 1949] 

Jugiong Holds Hotel History

THE opinion that 90 years’ possession of the one hotel by the one family line will “take some beating in Australia” was recently expressed by Mr. Murray Robertson, licensee of the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Allandale North, according to the S.A. “Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette” but the record for Australia belongs to the  Sheahan family, which has conducted the Jugiong Hotel, Jugiong, continuously for over 104 years,states the N.S.W. U.L.V.A.

It was on April 15, 1844, that John Phillip Sheahan took over the Jugiong Hotel, at Jugiong, which was an important place in the old coaching days. At that time Mr. Sheahan had a mail contract from Yass to Albury. In 1852, the original hotel was  washed away in the great Murrumbidgee flood. Afterwards the present hotel was built.

Following the death of Mr. Sheahan, the next in control was Mrs. M. A. Sheahan, who held the licence for more than 30 years. A few months after her death in 1939 the licence was transferred to Mr. James Sheahan, who conducted the hotel until September, 1947, when the licence was transferred to his sister, Miss Bridget Lilian Sheahan.At the hotel is a magnificent engraved autographed photograph of Governor Fitzroy, who presented it to the first owner. Jugiong is situated in the Yass electorate, which is represented in the Legislative Assembly by the Minister for Lands, Mr. W. F. Sheahan, a grandson of the original owner.

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Categories: NSW hotels

Tags: Allandale North, Bridget Lilian Sheahan, James Sheahan, John Phillip Sheahan, Jugiong, Mrs. M. A. Sheahan, Murray Robertson, Sheahan family, Sir George Hotel, Wheatsheaf Hotel