THE Imperial Hotel at Innisfail sat across the road from the Johnstone River, a notorious waterway known for crocodiles.

The large timber two-storey hotel was the preferred accommodation for game hunters visiting north Queensland to snag themselves a giant trophy croc early last century.

The Imperial Hotel was built for David William Henry in July 1899.

Henry had a short stay as host and died less than six months later, in January 1900 – not as a consequence of a croc attack, but by a less dramatic cause, related to “acute congestion of the kidneys”. He was just 45.

Henry’s widow took over as licensee of the Imperial after his death, until she moved to Townsville to open a pub by the same name in 1906.

The hotel was badly damaged by a cyclone in April 1918, and was later rebuilt.

The pub continued to trade from the site and in recent years was rebuilt as a single storey brick building, known as the Imperial Tavern.

The Imperial Tavern closed for business in 2018. The tavern re-opened for business in December 2022 after major renovations.

The photos of the large 14 feet crocodile was taken on October 18 1902 outside the Imperial Hotel at the corner of Fitzgerald Esplanade and Grace Street at Innisfail, when the town was known as Geraldton.

From 1879, the riverside settlement was named Geraldton, after an Irishman, Tom FitzGerald, who established the sugar industry in the area. In 1910 the settlement was renamed Innisfail to avoid confusion with the town of the same name in Western Australia.

The female crocodile was shot by “a visitor, Mr White”. Mr White – more than likely holding the rifle in the picture below – had his ‘game’ skinned, and, as the Geraldton Sentinel newspaper reported at the time, “when he next visits the north he will no doubt have a couple of fine alligator-leather bags to show his friends as a memento of his Geraldton ‘shot’”.

“The alligator (or crocodile) was a female and had a tremendous girth in proportion to her 14ft. in length. She was evidently of great age, for there was not a solitary tooth in her big jaws. Examination of the body showed two bullet holes besides the one made by Mr. White, and these were no doubt given to her by Mr Dillane about a fortnight ago when he sighted her in Bamboo Creek and gave her a sample of his firing powers. She got out of sight, however, on that occasion, and so Mr Dillane was debarred from adding her to the other hundred or so alligators he has bagged on the Johnstone.”

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Categories: Queensland hotels

Tags: crocodiles, Imperial Hotel Geraldton, Imperial Hotel Innisfail, William David Henry