Warraweena Hotel destroyed by fire twice

Warraweena Hotel Dry Lake 1940 ANU
Warraweena Hotel, Dry Lake, NSW 1940. Photo: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University.

The Warraweena Hotel was located at Dry Lake, about 35km north of Bourke, on the road to the Queensland border town of Barringun.

The pub was a stop-over for the mail coach, and popular with drovers, boundary riders and other travelling the outback.

The hotel was established by John Robinson and first licensed in May 1888.

John Robinson and his wife, Katherine, added a general store to the Warraweena Hotel in 1890, which also operated as the Dry Lake Post Office.

The Warraweena Hotel and Post Office was completely destroyed by fire in 1892, before the Robinsons rebuilt the outback pub.

The couple ran the pub until 1897, before a succession of licensees followed, continuing the tradition of providing a much-welcomed watering hole for travellers on the lonely road to the Queensland border.

The Warraweena Hotel traded for over 70 years before it was destroyed by fire on November 19, 1959. At the time the pub was also operating as the post office and was licensed to Charles Holland.

The pub traded from a “temporary” building before its license was cancelled on June 23 1961. Ken Doherty was licensee at the time.

The Warraweena Hotel, Dry Lake, near Bourke, NSW, 1959, shortly before it was destroyed by fire. Picture: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University

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Categories: NSW hotels

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