Former Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, 2018. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection 
Former Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, 2018. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection 
Former Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, 2018. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection 
Former Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, 2018. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection 
Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, 1970. Picture: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University 
Aberdare Hotel, Weston, NSW, C1925. Picture: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University
THE Aberdare Hotel at Weston, NSW, was built by Englishman, John Champion who came to Australia at the age of 21 in 1876.
Champion was coal miner, who later went into business, hosting the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle Hotel at Lambton, and later the Northumberland Hotel in Hunter Street Newcastle, during the 1880s.
Champion made his money though when he established the first hotel on the upper Hunter Valley coalfields, the Tattersall’s at Greta (1889 to 1892).
At the age of 48, Champion started building a grand hotel on what was then the corner of Hall and Aberdare streets at Weston. Champion completed the Aberdare Hotel at a cost about £2000, opening for business in March in 1905.
Sadly, the Aberdare Hotel closed for business in January 2016, during major renovations. Those renovations are uncompleted and the pub remains closed (2021).
More pictures and history of the Aberdare Hotel at Time Gents: Coal miner turns his hand to running pubs: The Aberdare Hotel, Weston
* Additional information supplied by Newcastle pub historian, Ed Tonks
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Categories: Feature pubs, NSW hotels
I used to stay at the Aberdare Hotel in Weston when our family friends, Sid and Nita Maher and her mother, Mrs Hector, owned it in the 1950s. One of their daughter’s Susan was my age.