_{By MICK ROBERTS ©}

PUBLICAN Tim Lorigan’s epitaph, carved into his tombstone, reveals in straight forward terms how the goldfield’s publican met his untimely death. It simply reads: “Died in the bush, Queensland”.

The publican’s lonely demise in outback Queensland in 1892 must have been devastating news for his heavily pregnant, 25-year-old wife, Catherine Lorigan.

The life of a bush landlady, particularly during Queensland’s heady gold rush days, wasn’t easy. In fact, it could be extremely difficult.

Irishman, Timothy Lorigan and his young wife, Catherine took the license of a hard drinkers’ miners’ pub in Durham, about 8km west of Georgetown, in 1889.

The pair had married in 1886, and had found their way to the developing Etheridge Goldfield in Far North Queensland.

The Brisbane Courier reported on 23 January 1885 that Durham had one homestead and two hotels, with the prospect of a large town settling there in the future.

The Durham Hotel and Bush Inn, stores, butcher’s shop and other places of business, serviced 79 gold mining leases on 20 acres of land at Durham.

As was common during these times, one of the town’s pubs serviced a large population of Chinese miners, while the other kept the Europeans’ thirst at bay.

The Bush Inn was originally hosted by Chines publican, Ah Coo, while John Dutton had the license of the Durham Hotel.

However, Tim Lorigan took-over the license of the Bush Inn from Ah Coo in January 1889. Tim joined the hundreds of hopeful miners prospecting for gold and silver, while his wife, Catherine, hosted the Bush Inn, at the same time caring for their newly born son, Daniel.

Tim had some success on the goldfields, the pub was trading well, and the future was looking rosy for the Lorigans, who had the addition of a baby girl, Catherine to their family in 1890. Although life was looking promising, the Lorigans luck was about to change.

Heavily pregnant with their third child, Catherine received distressing word in January 1892 from the Cobb and Co’s mailman from Herberton that her husband’s horse with harness had been found 96kms from Durham. A prospectors’ life could often mean they could be away for months on end with no word. Tim, although missing for weeks, was known to suffer from fits and bad health.

The sad news of Tim Lorigan’s demise, aged just 40, leaving a young pregnant wife and two children, aged 4 and 2, was reported in the Gympie Times on 19 January 1892:   

GEORGETOWN. January 17.

The body of Timothy Lorigan, an hotel keeper, at Durham, was found by John Swan, six miles east of the Herberton Georgetown crossing of the Einasleigh River, in an advanced state of decomposition, after weeks of searching by a number of people. The details point to death through an attack of fits and cramp, not starvation. The greatest sympathy is felt throughout the district, as the deceased was highly respected.

Timothy Lorigan was buried in the Georgetown cemetery. His gravestone reads: “In memory of Tim Lorigan, born in Clare, Ireland, 1852, died in the bush, Queensland, January 8^th, 1892.”

Catherine’s troubles, however, were not over. She continued as host of the Bush Inn, and less than three months after her husband’s death she was robbed.  The Toowoomba Chronicle reported on 7 April 1892:

April 1:  On Saturday night the Bush Inn, at Durham, owned by a widow named Lorigan, relict of the man who recently perished in the bush, was broken into. The silver in the bar till was taken by the burglars, who then entered the bedroom of the proprietress, opened the safe, presumably with a duplicate key, and took all the cash amounting to about £140. The robbery took place on the evening of the monthly pay day. There is no clue to the perpetrators of the robbery.

Three years later, innkeeper Catherine, now with three children aged under 7, married 31-year-old George Livermore. She was 28.

Livermore became licensee of the Bush Inn, and the couple would have two more children together while at the Durham pub – Marian (1896), and George, who died as an infant.

Catherine and George left Durham and the Bush Inn when they took over as hosts of the Salutation Hotel at nearby Georgetown in 1898. The couple had another son by the name of George together in 1899.

Now with five children aged between 5 and 16, life dealt Catherine another cruel blow in 1904. While host of the Salutation Hotel her second husband, George died at the age of 40, leaving her a widow once again.

Catherine married Thomas Walsh, two years later, on June 3 1906, who had taken the license of the Salutation Hotel at Georgetown.

After the Salutation Hotel, Catherine, with her new husband, went on to host a number of Queensland pubs, including the Osbourne Hotel, Fortitude Valley and the Club Hotel, Esk, before their retirement. Catherine’s third husband, Thomas John Walsh died in 1925.

Pioneering publican, Catherine Walsh died at Wilston, Brisbane on 19 September 1942 at the age of 75. She is buried in an unmarked grave in the Toowong Cemetery.

Meanwhile, the Bush Inn, after Catherine’s departure in 1898 was sold to north Queensland businessman and gold prospector, William Lee.

Lee, who was 56 when he gained the license of the Bush Inn at Durham, had arrived in the Colony of Victoria from Liverpool, England as a child. As a 12-year-old he was brought overland to Queensland from Melbourne in 1854.

During his younger days he followed the occupation of a miner visiting the early-day rushes at the Palmer, Hodgkinson, Charters Towers, Gilbert, and Herberton, at which latter place he was in business for some years. In the 1890s, he also held the license of the Paramatta Hotel, Canton street, Cairns.

William Lee held the license of the Bush Inn at Durham from 1898 to 1904 before selling-out to William Woolley in 1904.

Lee died at Mareeba in 1919 at the age of 77.

One of the longest hosts of the Bush Inn was Englishman, William Woolley, who held the license from 1904 to 1917. Woolley came to the Etheridge goldfields during the boom years, and was well known in the Georgetown and Forsayth districts. He retired to Cairns with his family after selling the Bush Inn, where he was caretaker at the bowling green for a number of years. He died in Cairns in 1940 at the age of 83.

The last known host of the Bush Inn was John Pedrain, who took-over the pub’s license in 1917. By this time Durham was a town in decline, and the pub would have struggled to have survived. Although the state school was still operating, the population would have been dwindling and business slack.

The closure year of the Bush Inn is undetermined, but it likely closed shortly after Pedrain gained the license in 1917. Nothing remains of the old mining town today, including of the old Bush Inn. 

Licensees of the Bush Inn, Durham, Qld

1887 – 1889: Ah Coo

1889 – 1892: Timothy Lorigan

1892 –1896: Catherine Lorigan/Livermore

1896 – 1898: George Livermore

1898 – 1904: William Lee

1904 – 1917: John Woolley

1917 – ? : John Pedrain

_{© Copyright Mick Roberts 2024}

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Categories: Queensland hotels

Tags: Bush Inn Durham