THIS grainy old image from a 1897 newspaper is the Court Hotel, which was established in what is now an abandoned gold mining town in Western Australia.

Bulong was a bustling settlement located 580kms east of Perth in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.

In 1893 a group of prospectors discovered gold on a lease they were granted. A town was laid out in 1894, which was to be named IOU. However, the Indigenous Australian name of a nearby spring was suggested instead. The townsite was gazetted Bulong in 1895.

By the year 1896 there were three pubs trading in Bulong, including the Court Hotel. On the back of gold mining the population of the town grew to 620 by 1900 and boasted large number of businesses including several hotels, bakeries, accountants, butchers and stores. The town also had a hospital, school, police station, telegraph station and post office.

Owned at the time by the Cohen family, the Court Hotel was completely destroyed by fire in 1917.  The pub was rebuilt, and was known as Cohen’s Bulong Hotel, until it lost its license in 1938.

The licensee of the time couldn’t afford orders by the Licensing Board for certain renovations to be made, and preferred to surrender the licence. The pub was dismantled and removed that same year

Bar Tip

Would you like to make a small donation towards the publication of The Time Gents website? If you would like to support my work, you can leave a $2.50 donation here with your credit card, or you can increase the amount after clicking or tapping into the icon below. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs and research.

Or tip with PayPal

Categories: Western Australia hotels

Tags: Bulong Hotel, Cohens Bulong Hotel, Court Hotel Bulong