_{By MICK ROBERTS ©}

UPDATE: We are saddened to learn of the passing of publican, Maxine Dragojlo at the age of 69 in June 2025. Our condolences to husband, Peter and family.

ARCHITECTURALLY, the Aloomba Hotel is no oil painting. However, what she lacks in beauty, she makes up for in practicability, character and integrity.

She’s one of the last old-school family operated pubs left trading in the Cairns region.

Sitting amongst the sugar cane fields of Fair North Queensland, Aloomba’s last commercial building caters for a small community of less than 600 people, and is located about 30 minutes south of Cairns.

To be honest, there’s not much happening in Aloomba. The general store and post office closed in 2009, and the pub has now taken-up the responsibility of collecting and receiving the town’s mail. Only the pub and state primary school keep the town’s heart beating.

Despite a dwindling population and a declining town centre, Aloomba has a strong community spirit. Like many small Australian towns, the pub is the hub of activity.

Aloomba is an old school pub. It has no pokies, just the essentials. These include a bar, a weekly meat raffle, and plenty of cold beer. These keep the locals coming back.

Life partners Maxine Herbert and Peter Dragojlo have hosted Aloomba Hotel for over 35 years. Their tenure surpasses any of the previous hosts in the pub’s 125-year history.

We visited Maxine, 68, and Peter, 69, at their quiet little cane fields pub in November 2024.

“Sorry for the mess, we’re pulling-out the old cool room,” Maxine said.

“It’s had it. We’re keeping the front of the cool room, because it’s part of the pub’s history, but we’re replacing the back with a smaller cooling unit.”

“Peter wanted to get rid of it entirely, but I insisted we keep the front.”

Maxine has worked in pubs all her life. She’s been pulling beers from behind the bars of north Queensland pubs for over 55 years.

Born at Kabam Station, on the Atherton Tablelands, where her mum broke brumbies and her dad drove cattle trucks, Maxine is a tough and resilient woman.

She’s seen a lot of changes in the hospitality industry.

The family moved to Innisfail where her father, besides operating his own trucking business, established a saw mill in the 1970s.

Since her father’s death at the age of 84 in 2019, Maxine – an only child – has kept the Innisfail sawmill operating. She shares her time between the pub and mill, where she employs four men.

“I didn’t know anything about operating sawmills before dad’s passing. I quickly learned though,” she said.  

A young Maxine, while not planning a career in hospitality, was destined to work in pubs all her life. Her first job as a barmaid was in Malanda’s famous ‘Big Pub’ on the Atherton Tablelands. 

“Despite needing to be 21, I was given my first job as a barmaid at the Malanda pub at the age of 17,” Maxine said.

“That was back in the old days, when most men drank seven or 10 ounce glasses of beer. The men sat at the bar with their money on the counter, and as a barmaid, you would never be game to leave any of their glasses empty.

“You knew everyone by name, and what they drank.

“You filled their glass when it was empty. You took their money that was sitting in front of them, and returned their change to the pile. Usually, not a word was spoken.”

During the 1970s, Maxine worked as a barmaid in the historic two-storey, timber Milla Milla pub, which was destroyed by fire and replaced with a modern single-storey brick structure in the early 1980s.

“I worked for Olive and Harvey Keys. It was their first pub, and I taught them the ropes,” Maxine said.

Around this time, while playing squash, Maxine met Peter, and they soon became an item. They have been partners ever since.

“One day he may pop the question,” Maxine laughed.

Peter also had a connection with the hospitality industry, with relatives owning several north Queensland pubs, including the Babinda State Hotel, and the Central Hotel in Cairns. Although Peter never pulled beers behind the bar, he worked as a yardman, doing odd jobs around the family’s pubs. He was also a truck driver.

Peter suggested that they buy a pub, and Maxine reluctantly agreed.

“We looked around at a few pubs that were on the market at the time,” Peter said.

“The Mt Garnet, Currajah, Aloomba and Wangan were all up for sale at the time. We missed out on the Currajah, and then settled on Aloomba,” he said.

In 1988, Maxine, 32, and Peter, 33, moved into the Aloomba Hotel with their two children, Wesley, seven and Jody, 11. While at Aloomba they had another son, Travis.

Sadly tragedy struck the family in 1996 when their daughter Jody was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Maxine said Aloomba was the perfect pub for raising a young family.

“It was ideal for the kids, with a park and school close-by,” she said.

“We were 10 minutes from Gordonvale, and 30 minutes from Cairns.”

Peter and Maxine purchased the pub from Ken and Sheila Robson in August 1988, and they’ve been at the helm ever since.

“It was tough financially, but we managed and we wouldn’t change it for the earth,” Maxine said.

“We had three bands on the first Friday of the months, did meals anytime of the day, and employed three part time barmaids.

“Most of our customers were cane farmers, and their employees.

“The bar reeked of cut cane. It could get pretty tough in the bar at times.

“We would average one fight a night, and sometimes up to five! Normally, we would get out amongst the action, to sought things out. There was no security in those days. We were the security.

“We loved it. After a big night at the pub, it wasn’t unusual to find customers asleep under the pool table the following morning.”

About 20 years ago, the couple managed to pay-off the pub, and began to wind-down, as Aloomba’s demographics changed, and customers dwindled.

Maxine said one of the greatest impacts on their business was when cane farmers began setting up bars in their sheds for workers.

“We lost loads of customers,” she said.

“We eventually stopped the bands, and meals, and no longer employed barmaids.

“We never sacked anyone though. They gradually left us as business declined.”

Aloomba’s only other business, the general store and post office closed for business in 2009, placing more importance on the pub.

The closure of the post office meant the loss of 129 post boxes, some of which had been in the same family for four generations!

“We were approached to take on the post office, which would mean the inclusion of the boxes. How could we say no? These people were our customers, and friends.

“We have locals wandering into the pub at all hours of the day. If the parcel is too big for the box, we place them on a table here in the bar, and they come in to collect them, have a chat and sometimes a drink.”

Maxine says life at the Aloomba pub is a lot slower from the heady days of 35 years ago when they first bought the business.

“We open the pub at midday and close-up early. We don’t have accommodation in our two bedrooms anymore, and Peter’s brother, Johnny helps out in the bar.

“Talk at the bar no longer revolves around cane, like when we first came here. These days the fellas sitting at the bar mostly talk football.

“I’ve enjoyed our life here at Aloomba pub. We’ve met so many good people, and have been privileged to live in such a close knit community,” Maxine said.

Peter agreed. “It’s the friendships we’ve made over the years that are special,” he said.

The future of Cairn’s last remaining family owned and operated pub though is uncertain.

The couple’s two surviving children have no interest in taking the reins, and Peter and Maxine have the Aloomba pub on the market.

“We’re open to offers,” Maxine said.

“We’ve had some interest,” Peter said.

“The pub would be perfect for a young couple like we were when we took on the pub 35 years ago. There’s a lot of potential.”  

The rich history of the Aloomba Hotel

The Aloomba Hotel was built in 1899 by 27-year-old Cairns’ businessman and sugar cane farmer Charles Vesey Hives, of Wright’s Creek.

Construction of the hotel was begun in June 1899 by Wrights Creek Building Co., under the supervision of Cairns Municipal Council engineer, Mr C. T. Stephens.

The two-storey timber pub had four sitting rooms and six bedrooms, a bar room, and stabling accommodation. A provisional certificate was granted by the Queensland Licensing Court for the premises on 19 July 1899, and the license was confirmed in October.

Charles Hives was an interesting personality. While he owned the Aloomba Hotel, he never hosted the pub, and his time as a hotelier was short.

Hives was born in Ireland in 1872. The son of an officer in the Royal Navy, he completed his education at Oxford University, where he graduated and then studied law for two or three years. He set out to see the world, finally arriving in Queensland as a young man.

After, some experience in cattle station work, in the 1890s he took up land near Wrights Creek, along what is today the Yarrabah Road, about 30kms south of Cairns. With his wife, Mary, he made the property home, calling it ‘Kamma’, and establishing a dairy farm. However, the dairy was a failure and he would later make his wealth growing sugar cane for the nearby Mulgrave and Hambledon mills. He also opened up virgin scrub country in the region, and was one of the original guarantors of the Babinda Mill. He was the prime mover in founding the Cairns Canegrowers Association, and acted as its honorary secretary for several years.

Hives also served for 10 years on the Cairns Shire Council, when its tramway, now the North Coast railway, was being pushed into the big scrub.

The Cairns-Mulgrave Tramway was a private tram line from Cairns to the Mulgrave River. It was built to serve the Mulgrave Central Sugar Mill, built in 1895. The line, which led through dense jungle, was built by the Cairns Divisional Board, later renamed Cairns Shire Council, at a cost of £15,319. The line originally ran from Cairns to Nelson, later renamed Gordonvale. In 1898 it was extended to Aloomba, and in 1910 it was extended to Babinda, over a length of 50km. The Queensland Government bought the line and integrated it into Queensland Rail in 1911.

With the railway from Cairns to Aloomba opening in 1898, Hives seized the opportunity and bought property opposite the Aloomba tram station.

Directly opposite the station he built the two-storey timber Aloomba Hotel the following year. Interestingly, a station master’s residence was not built for the Aloomba Tram Station, and the station master lived in a rented room at the Aloomba Hotel. 

Hives leased his new pub to Townsville hotelier, Alymer Edwin Campbell in September 1899. However, Campbell never became host of the Aloomba pub, and almost immediately the lease was taken-over by another well-known north Queensland publican, 50-year-old William Thorn Carr.

Carr, with his wife Emily and their large family of 10 children, had hosted the Evlyn Hotel at Herberton, Commercial Hotel, Watsonville, Carriers Arms, Scrubby Creek, and Cluden Hotel at Townsville, prior to taking the reins of the Aloomba Hotel.

When the hotel was completed in 1899, it sat ideally at the terminus of the railway connecting Aloomba with Cairns, which had opened with great fan fare the previous year.

The Cairns Morning Post reported on 14 October 1899 that William Carr’s Aloomba Hotel “is sure to be availed of by travellers to and from Geraldton and the Lower Russell residents of Cairns. The hotel, reported the newspaper, is “charmingly situated and just the place for a weeks holiday”.

The Carrs opened the Aloomba pub for business with “a big dance” on Saturday 28 October 1899. The pub’s location opposite the Aloomba Tram Station proved an instant success, with many Cairns residents enjoying day-trips for picnics or lunch. The Cairns Morning Post reported on 17 February 1900:

A special train has been engaged by Ah Tong to leave Cairns tomorrow (Sunday), for Aloomba, for the purpose of conveying a number of his Celestial friends to the ceremonial christening of his infant son. The Tramway management has arranged to attach an open wagon to the train, in which any of the general public desirous of an enjoyable Sunday in the country may travel to Aloomba at ordinary fares. Mr W. T. Carr, of the Aloomba Hotel, expects a number of visitors out, and has made arrangements for their comfort.

A reporter for the Innisfail newspaper, Evening Advocate recalled the “Aloomba Hotel in the early days” in a story published on 6 October 1948.

Some old residents of the north can remember the Aloomba Hotel nearly half a century ago. It was a long dry stretch between Aloomba and Babinda where the next hotel was to be found. The Babinda hotel was kept in later years by Mrs. Maxoney who, when the Babinda State hotel was built, had her interests acquired by the Government. The Cairns-Babinda train was called a tramway in those early days and was owned by the Cairns Shire Council, the line and rolling stock being absorbed later as a preliminary to the coming of the north-south railway. When a train reached Aloomba from Cairns there was a wild rush of passengers to the Aloomba hotel to quench thirsts. There were some long thirsts in those days, and plenty of beer to quench them. Passengers took liquor for the slow journey between Aloomba and Babinda. The trams, which were really trains, did not travel the distance quite as fast as the Sunshine express does it today. Once the bar of the Aloomba hotel was reached there was a jostle for positions and as much beer as possible was consumed in the shortest possible time. Suddenly the whistle of the train would sound. Those with upraised glasses attempted to swallow the contents so fast that at times a good deal of the beer was spilled. Then, armed with bottles, the passengers would race back to the train and refresh themselves as they proceeded mile after mile in the direction of Babinda. Sometimes prominent citizens of Cairns in those days referred to would spend weekends at the Aloomba Hotel for a change of scenery and air. On occasions it was not possible to accommodate them all in rooms, but they did not mind in the least, and would snore on the verandah all night. It is recalled that the gentleman who once possessed the reputation of being the north’s champion snorer, and who at one time lived in Cairns, visited Aloomba for a weekend. He and another Cairns resident whose snores, were said to be capable of being heard two blocks away in a certain Cairns street, met at the hotel one week end. Other weekend boarders who knew the snoring proclivities of these gentlemen slyly suggested a snoring competition. When both visitors got to sleep they lived up to their reputation, and when morning came the judges who had been appointed for the occasion declared it a draw.

Carr and his wife hosted the Aloomba Hotel until 1903 when owner, Charles Vesey Hives sold the freehold of the pub to another successful Cairns’ businessman, Patrick Joseph Doyle, in November for a reported £1200.

This is where C. V. Hives leaves the story of the Aloomba Hotel. The builder of the Aloomba pub had an unsuccessful attempt at entering politics in Cairns, while continuing as a leader in the Queensland sugar industry, before retiring to Brisbane. He was appointed a member of the Queensland Sugar Board in 1930, and was an outstanding industrial advocate of the Australian Sugar Producers Association.

Charles Vesey Hives later moved to Toowoomba, where he died in 1940 at the age of 68, leaving a wife, Mary and daughter, Cecile.

Meanwhile William Thorn Carr and his wife Emily left as hosts of the Aloomba Hotel in 1904, taking on a number of local pubs, including the Mulgrave Hotel at Gordonvale.

Aloomba Hotel’s first publican, William Thorn Carr died in Cairns at the age of 83 in 1932. His wife had predeceased him in 1912. Seven daughters and a son survived the publican.

With the Carrs’ departure, the Aloomba Hotel’s new owner, Cairns’ businessman, Patrick Joseph Doyle leased the premises to Bridget O’Regan in 1904.

By this time, Doyle had established himself as a successful north Queensland liquor merchant and hotel agent. He would go onto own more than a dozen pubs in the region, including Cairns’ Crown Hotel and later the Empire Hotel (now known as the Barrier Reef Hotel).

Born in Ireland, Doyle at the age of 18 made his way to Townsville where he worked in administration for a liquor merchant in 1881. He was sent north to Thursday Island as a representative of the trading firm, and by 1888 had gone into business as a merchant in his own right.

Doyle married Jane Brady on July 11 1889 and they had one child together, a daughter Elizabeth Alice Margaret on March 27 1891 on Thursday Island. Doyle’s wife is a bit of a mystery. After their marriage she disappears from all records.

As a married man, he opened several businesses on Thursday Island, including a general store and wine and spirit merchant business, to which he later added a pearling fleet.

Besides Doyle’s successful fleet of pearl luggers working in the Torres Straits, and his wine and spirit store, he was also an insurance agent. While on Thursday Island, he also built his first pub, the Grand Hotel in 1889, of which he was host until 1890.

With his eight-year-old daughter, Alice, the entrepreneurial hotelier and merchant relocated his business ‘J. P. Doyle Pty Ltd’ to Cairns in 1899. His wife does not join him in Cairns, and she possibly returned to England in 1898.

The Queenslander newspaper reported on 30 September 1898 that Doyle was about to leave Thursday Island on a trip to ‘the old country’ aboard the Duke of Devonshire. The brief story does not mention whether his daughter or wife travelled with him. However, chances are that Jane Doyle returned to Britain at this time. Her fate remains unknown.

Meanwhile, P. J. Doyle built a grand two-storey villa by the name of ‘Seville’ at Balaclava, a suburb of Cairns, in 1902. Named after a Spanish city, he lived in Seville with his young daughter and a governess, until his death.

As principal of Doyle Pty Ltd, the enterprising businessman opened a liquor merchant store in central Cairns and began buying and establishing a number of pubs in the region, including the Aloomba Hotel in 1903.

With Doyle as owner, a new lease of the Aloomba Hotel was given to Irish publican, 46-year-old Bridget O’Regan, who took over as licensee in February 1904.

Bridget O’Regan had plenty of experience as a publican, having hosted the Tate River Hotel in the tin-mining region in the back country on Far North Queensland, about 28 miles from Almaden. She had followed her nephews, James and John Newell to the region.

The Newell brothers were pioneers of the far northern mining fields of Queensland, and John is considered the founder of Herberton. The Newell brothers were among the first on the Palmer River goldfields in the early 1870s. Following a rush to the area, the Palmer Rover Goldfield was proclaimed in 1873. They also pioneered mining in the back country near Chillagoe.

Bridget Newell likely arrived in Australia as a teenager about the same time as her nephews in 1872, and in 1891.

At the age of 33, she married 24-year-old William O’Regan, before the couple made their way to the tin mining region near Chillagoe, where she hosted the Tate River Hotel.

The mining town of Tate River, about 45kms from Almaden, and about 58kms from Chillagoe, had about a dozen private residences in 1911. Nothing remains of the town today.

Bridget O’Regan hosted the Tate River Hotel for four years during the 1890s before taking on the Aloomba Hotel.

In January 1904, at the age of 46, with four daughters – the eldest just 13-years-of-age – and a 37-year-old husband, who was fond of the bottle, Bridget took a two year and 10 month lease of a big-drinking cane-cutters pub at Aloomba. What could go wrong?

Less than 10 months after gaining the license, Bridget’s husband, William fronted the Cairns Police Court in November 1904 for obscene language.  He was 10 shillings for using foul language in the pub. The O’Regans would extend the lease over the following years, and remain one of the longest tenants of the pub.

In 1909, Bridget was granted leave from April to October by the courts to allow her to visit her country of birth. Permission was given for John Jeffrey Ross to act as publican while the O’Regan family visited Ireland. The Cairns Morning Post reported on 15 March 1909:

Mr and Mrs O’Regan of the Aloomba Hotel, very old and popular residents of the district, leave for Sydney in a fortnight to catch the P. and O. steamer for England, en-route to Ireland. The Misses O’Regan will accompany their parents.

Also on their return to Far North Queensland the following year, Bridget’s brother, Matthew Newell, preceded against his sister in the Cairns Summons Court in February 1910 for a claim of £40, being money due. The case for plaintiff was that Bridget had promised to pay him for helping manage the Aloomba Hotel while she visited Ireland. Matthew was boarding at the pub at the time.

Bridget told the court that while she intended to have her brother assist in management of the pub while she was Ireland, she decided against it, as he was a loafer”. Instead, she engaged John Ross, who was now her son-in-law to manage the pub. She insisted that there was no contract between her and her brother to manage the pub while she was away.

The Court decided that there was no contract between the two, and the verdict was given to Bridget.

Seven months later, Bridget’s eldest daughter, 18-year-old Catherine (or ‘Katie’ to her friends) married the relief publican, 31-year-old John Jeffrey Ross in September 1910.

Matthew Newell, Bridget’s brother had been a publican in the Cairns district as early as 1888. His first pub was the Club House Hotel in Abbott Street, and he later respectively had the Sydney and Criterion Hotels, also both in Abbott Street. He died in Cairns Hospital “after a long illness” in 1918 at the age of 59.

Meanwhile, Bridget, now 53, handed over the pub to her new son-in-law, John ‘Jack’ Ross and daughter, Katie to run in 1911. John and Katie Ross hosted the pub through some of the most turbulent times from 1911 to 1916.

The couple had to contend with a cyclone that hit Cairns in January 1913. Although the two-storey timber pub survived the storm, heavy rain caused surrounding creeks and rivers to break their banks, resulting in damaging floods. A reported two feet of water filled the bar room of the Aloomba Hotel.

The pub gained a reputation for disorderly conduct during Ross’ stewardship. In August 1913, the police refused to grant a certificate of compliance when Ross applied for his license renewal. The local police sergeant said the hotel needed a second fire escape, and some of the accommodation rooms were not up to the requirements of the licensing Act. The Police Magistrate said he would not grant the license until the second fire escape was put in place. He also commented that he had complaints about the treatment of travellers at the hotel. One person said that whenever he approached the Aloomba Hotel someone would come out and say, “No room here”.

Ross eventually made the required improvements, installing the second fire escape, and allowing his license to be approved. The installation of a second fire escape more than likely saved lives when six years later the pub burnt to the ground in a disastrous blaze.

After John and Katie Ross left the Aloomba Hotel in 1916, they moved to Goulburn on the NSW’s southern highlands, where they hosted the Great Southern Hotel. John ‘Jack’ Ross died in Willoughby, in Sydney’s north on 23 April 1952 at the age of 73. His widow, Catherine Mary ‘Katie’ Ross died at the age of 81 in St Leonards aged 81 in 1972.

At the age of 58, Bridget O’Regan returned as licensee of the Aloomba Hotel in January 1916. By this time, her big-drinking husband’s swilling was getting worse. Bridget was granted a prohibition order against William in the courts in an effort to kerb his excessive drinking.

Bridget told the courts that her husband had been drinking heavily for the past 16 years. He would travel into Gordonvale and Cairns on drinking binges, arriving home plastered. She explained to the court how he was injuring his health and was “wasting his estate”.

“Through liquor he had had the horrors on several occasions,” she told the court. The court placed a prohibition order on William’s drinking for 12 months.

Bridget was host of the Aloomba Hotel when the Cane Beetles March stopped at the pub in 1916. The snowball march, to recruit men into the Australian Imperial Force during World War I, was staged to encourage men to enlist after the loss of life in the Gallipoli campaign. The march began at Mooliba on 20 April 1916 with four men and ended in Cairns 60km later with 29 recruits. The Northern Herald reported on 5 May 1916:

The ‘Beetles’ then left for Aloomba where they arrived at 5.20. A big escort of townspeople awaited them, and their entry into Aloomba was the signal for much enthusiasm. The party were publicly received by Mr. Hollamby, and a speech was also made by Mr. McMahon of the Babinda Recruiting Committee. That night the party were the guests of Mrs O’Regan, of the Aloomba Hotel, also of the Recruiting Committee. The ‘Beetles’ left Aloomba at noon on Easter Saturday, and reached the

Gordonvale bridge at 2.50pm where they were met by the citizens, rifle club, cadets, school children, and others. The Gordonvale band was also present. 

Police were regular visitors to the Aloomba Hotel as the Great War came to an end in 1918. Arguably, during the war and a few years following, were some of the most violent times in the pub’s long history. Fights were common, with confrontations between immigrant cane-cutters, sometimes involving weapons, including knifes and guns.

All the violence likely got too much for 63-year-old Bridget. In 1921 she pulled-stumps on a long career as a hotelier.

After more than 20 years as a publican, four years in the tin-mining region near Chillagoe and 17 years at the Aloomba pub, Bridget called last drinks. She retired to Herberton to live with her spinster daughters, Nellie (Nell), Hannah (Dot) and Sarah (Babe).

Herberton was where her nephew, John Newell had retired, and there was plenty of family on the tablelands for support. Just one year after retiring to Herberton, Bridget O’Regan died on 10 April 1922 at the age of 64. Her heavy drinking husband, William died in 1936 at a private hospital in Lewisham, Sydney, NSW at the age of 69.

Interestingly, at the time of her death, Bridget was likely in debt to the owner of the Aloomba Hotel, Patrick Joseph Doyle. The probate in the will of Bridget O’Regan was granted at the Supreme Court to Doyle.

The Irish landlady was laid to rest in the Herberton cemetery.

The following year, the owner of the Aloomba Hotel, Patrick Joseph Doyle also died. The wealthy Cairns businessman suffered a heart attack while at ‘Gelling’s Garage’. He was taken to the Grierson Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards. He was 60.

After Doyle’s death, his only child, Alice Maesmore-Morris became the principal of Doyle Pty Ltd. At the age of 32, Alice had become a wealthy woman, inheriting the Doyle business empire, including about 15 north Queensland pubs.

As a single woman, Alice Doyle went to Sydney in 1917 to take up singing and dancing studies. She had a brief theatrical career before marrying Captain Colin Maesmore-Morris in Ceylon in 1921 at the age of 30. Captain Maesmore-Morris was the son of Gertrude Maesmore-Morris, who enjoyed great popularity as an actress during the early 1900s.

As principal of Doyle Pty Ltd, Alice Maesmore-Morris became well-known for her philanthropy. She organised many charitable events, especially in assisting fundraising for equipment for the Cairns Hospital. She is credited with buying the hospital’s first X-ray machine.

After Bridget O’Regan’s departure as host from the Aloomba Hotel in 1921, until 1929, half a dozen different licensees stayed less than three years at the pub.

Sugar cane farmer, 38-year-old Charles Leslie Salter took-over Theos Penklis’ lease of the Aloomba Hotel in 1929.

Salter paid Penklis £1250 for the balance of his lease from P. J. Doyle Pty Ltd, the license, furniture and goodwill. He also had an option for a further five years’ lease for £1500, at a weekly rental of £7. Salter paid a license fee of £75 per year.

Fate would deal Salter a cruel blow just five months after he was granted the license of the hotel in July 1929.

Charles Leslie Salter was born in Fingal Tasmania on 1 December 1891 before he made his way to Far North Queensland about 1915. Salter, a sugar cane farmer, was a champion wood chopper, and competed in several competitions in and around Cairns.

Salter married Mary Anna McCarthy in 1918 and they raised a family on their farm in the Edmonton area. He took the license of the Aloomba Hotel in May 1924, and had a short stay before returning to farming the following year. He decided to return to the Aloomba Hotel and took the license and lease for a second time on 3 July 1929.

While at the helm of the Aloomba hotel, a fire completely destroyed the building on December 4 1929.

At the time, the hotel was a two-storied timber building, with a bar, bar parlour, sitting-room, dining-room, store-room, kitchen, and pantry on the ground level. The second storey contained eight bed rooms for the accommodation of the public, and three private bedrooms for Salter’s family, and their servant, Ade Keller.

Salter was sitting with his wife on the pub’s balcony about 10.30pm when he smelt smoke. He went down-stairs to investigate, and on opening the door of the parlour at the rear of the bar, he was met by a wall of flames.

The occupants of the hotel had only enough time to save their personal belongings before the flames completely engulfed the building. The hotel lay in ashes within a quarter of an hour. An inquiry was held into the blaze, with Salter’s testimony reported in the Cairns Post on 25 January 1930:

“I remember the night of December 4, 1929. I closed the bar at 8pm and cleaned up the bar and closed up the rooms and extinguished the lights and went upstairs about 8.30pm. There was no sign of fire anywhere at the time of my going up stairs. There were no lamps burning downstairs. About 10.30pm I was sitting on the verandah upstairs near my private rooms having some refreshments with my wife, Ade Keller, servant, and a boarder named Leslie Bowers. Earlier in the night I noticed Mr. Wallace, station master, burning some rubbish in his yard across the road from the hotel. I smelt something unusual and I attributed it to the rubbish burning in Wallace’s yard and did not pay much attention to it, just then, but after a few minutes it became stronger and I decided to investigate. I noticed that fumes were coming from below, and I went down stairs by the staircase leading at the storeroom and opened the door leading into the bar and found that the bar was full of smoke. I then opened a door into the sitting-room adjoining the bar and found that a fire was burning in the partition between this room and the adjoining room. The flames burst into the bar when I opened the door and I immediately closed the bar. There was no water available to fight the fire with and if there had been I would not have been able to extinguish the fire by myself. I rushed upstairs and told my wife to prepare to get the children out of bed and get out as quickly as possible. I went back downstairs and endeavoured to do something to stay the fire, but I was unable to do anything as the fire had increased in volume from when I first saw it. I then ran around to Morton’s Cafe, and informed Morton and went upstairs and threw a few clothes over the balcony; I then, went to the back of the hotel and removed my motor car to a place of safety. I got Sam Williams to ‘phone Gordonvale Police. Others arrived and assisted to remove my motor car to a place of safety. I got Sam Williams to ‘phone Gordonvale Police. Others arrived and assisted to remove the furniture and stock from Morton’s Cafe on to the road. I, with others, threw water on the walls of Morton’s Cafe, which prevented it catching fire. The hotel building collapsed about a quarter of an hour after I saw the fire. Only a few personal effects belonging to my wife, self and family were saved from the fire. There were some men playing cards in the room where the fire originated prior to closing up, and some, of them were smoking cigarettes. In my opinion it was possible that a cigarette butt may have dropped on the floor and got on to ‘the frayed edges of the linoleum and caused the fire. This is the only conclusion that I can come to, as to how the fire originated. I do not think that the fire was lit by any person.”

Within five months of the fire the owner of the Aloomba Hotel, the principal of P. J. Doyle Pty Ltd, Alice Maesmore Morris, had given the green-light for its rebuild. Architect T. W. M. Lordan was engaged to design a replacement hotel for the site, and tenders were called for its construction in April 1930.

Architect, Timothy Morris Wentworth Lordan designed some of Cairns most notable hotels, including the new National Hotel in 1927. He was responsible for the design of many of P. J. Doyle’s pubs in the Cairns region. Interestingly Lordan became a publican himself, hosting the Hotel Pacific in Cairns in 1930, where he remained until his death in 1939.   

The replacement two-storey Aloomba Hotel was similar in design to the original pub, although much larger in scale and size. It featured a grand balcony over-looking the cane fields and mountain ranges.

Charles and Mary Salter were given an extension of their lease and remained on as hosts of the new hotel, which officially opened with a euchre party and dance on 9 August 1930.

Through the 1930s the new Aloomba Hotel continued to be the centre of community life, with the large balcony often utilised as a dance floor during concerts. The pub was also the scene of fundraising concerts and euchre parties to raise funds for the local ambulance, maintenance of the community hall and for sporting clubs, including football and cricket. The pub’s yard was also where wood-chopping competitions were regular staged during the ‘30s, which often drew large crowds. 

Alice Maesmore Morris made the decision to sell Doyle Pty Ltd to Carlton United Breweries in January 1938, effectively severing the family’s links to the hotel industry in north Queensland.

Carlton United Brewery in conjunction with northern merchants bought all the properties in the P. J. Doyle estate for a reported £200,000. The properties were all located in Far North Queensland, and included 15 freehold hotels. Among the hotels was the pub at Aloomba. The sale meant the Aloomba Hotel was now under the ownership of Carlton United Breweries. Interestingly, the Melbourne based brewery, retained the trading name Doyle Pty Ltd.

The Cairns Post reported on 22 December 1938:

On the eve of leaving Cairns for her home in Ceylon, Mrs Maesmore-Morris was the guest of the directors and staffs of Messrs. P. J. Doyle Pty Ltd at a dinner at Hides Hotel last evening. Until recent months, when the well-known city business house was launched as a company, Mrs. Maesmore-Morris was the principal of the firm, which was founded early in the century by her father, the late Mr. P. J. Doyle… As the daughter of the founder, Mrs Maesmore-Morris had taken up the reins of business on the death of Mr Doyle and considerable progress had been recorded during her association with the firm.

After the sale, Alice Maesome-Morris moved back to her home in Ceylon with her husband in 1938. The only child of Patrick Joseph Doyle and former principal of the Cairns hotel and liquor empire died in London in 1956 aged 65.

The well-known Owens family took over operations at the Aloomba Hotel during World War II. In January 1939, less than seven months before Australia joined the war in Europe, 22-year-old Kathleen Lucy Owen was granted the license of the Aloomba pub. Kathleen was a single woman at the time, the daughter of publicans, Michael and Sophia Owens, who were hosting the Commercial Hotel at Gordonvale at the time.

Soon after taking the license of the Aloomba pub, Kathleen Owens was slapped with what was a huge fine for the times after a police raid on her hotel in August 1939. She pleaded guilty to a charge of keeping her house open for the sale of liquor during prohibited hours, and was fined £10, with 6 shillings court costs. The 15 men court drinking in the pub on a Sunday were each fined £1 and 10 shillings, with 6 shillings court costs.

After his daughter’s indiscretion, Michael Owens, who likely funded Kathleen’s Aloomba business venture, relinquished the license of the Commercial Hotel at Gordonvale, and took control of the Aloomba Hotel in December 1939.

Michael Owens was a respected citizen in the Gordonvale region, and had served as a councillor on Cairns Shire Council from 1932 to 1939. He was 52 years of age when he was granted the license of the Aloomba pub. His wife, Sophia was 48.

Like many in the district, Michael and Sophia Owens lost their eldest son, ‘Mick’ to the war, in 1944. Private Michael Owens was born in Gordonvale, and spent most of his childhood days around the Miriwinni district. He saw service in the Middle East before he was sent to New Guinea where he was killed in battle at the age of 27.

The Cairns Post reported on 10 February 1944 that the brave young soldier had “earned the pride and respect of his whole company, and was always ready to assist a cobber”.

After leaving the Aloomba Hotel in 1942, Michael Owens Senior retired to Brisbane, before making Gordonvale home. He died at Gordonvale in 1970 at the age of 70. His wife, Sophia also died at Gordonvale aged 91 in 1982. They are both buried in the Gordonvale Cemetery.

Their daughter, Kathleen, who had the license of the Aloomba pub for a short period in 1939, married Arthur Moss in 1940. Kathleen Moss died in 2003 at the age of 86 and her ashes are at the Gordonvale Cemetery.

The remainder of the war years at the Aloomba Hotel were hosted by George and Lola Le Roy. George was the son of a well-known north Queensland hotelier, Frederic William Le Roy, who hosted the Freshwater Hotel for many years until his death at the age of 67 in 1942.

The Le Roys had a short stay at Aloomba, hosting the pub from 1942 to 1944. Lola and George Le Roy separated in 1944 and divorced the following year.

The license of the Aloomba Hotel was transferred from Lola Le Roy to George Strubb in April 1945. Lola Le Roy went on to host the Club Hotel at Ravenshoe.

The next high profile publican at the Aloomba Hotel was George Strubb, who hosted the pub for almost a decade. He was at the helm when the pub burnt to the ground for a second time in 1948.

George Strubb had a history when it came to his business enterprises going up in smoke. Three pubs that he hosted, including his wife’s kiosk at Flying Fish Point, all were reduced to ashes.

George Strubb arrived in Sydney from Germany on 25 May 1914 at the age of 23 before making his way to Far North Queensland, where he married Elizabeth Ellen Shove in 1924.

The couple lived at Woree before going onto hosting a number of north Queensland pubs. Strubb’s first pub was the Crown Hotel in Cairns.

Soon after taking-up the position as the pub’s manager, the Crown Hotel was totally destroyed by fire in May 1928. A theme that followed Strubb on his various business ventures.

An inquiry into the 1928 fire at the Crown Hotel, Cairns, found that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the blaze.

Established in 1886, the Crown Hotel, like Aloomba, was owned by P. J. Doyle Pty Ltd. After the Crown Hotel’s destruction by fire, a temporary bar was provided, until the current hotel was built in 1929.

With his wife, Elizabeth and their four-year-old son, Eric, George Strubb took-up residency in Gordonvale, where he was granted the license of Mulgrave Hotel in August 1928.

Strubb was host of the Mulgrave Hotel when, like the Crown at Cairns, the Gordonvale pub was also totally destroyed by fire on 2 April 1930.

One border named Jordan was cut off from all exits and had to make a daring leap from the front balcony to escape. He sustained burns to one hand and a shaking from the leap. Reportedly this was his second shock while staying at the hotel.

About three weeks before the fire, Jordan awoke one night to find his room mate sitting on the bed with a gashed throat, which resulted in his death. The man had committed suicide by slashing his throat with a razor.

Like in the Crown Hotel’s case, an inquiry later found there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the Mulgrave Hotel blaze.

From Gordonvale, Strubb worked as a baker and slaughterman at Innisfail, before gaining employment at the CSR Sugar Refinery at Goondi. His wife and boy were living at Flying Fish Point, where Elizabeth ran a kiosk from 1931.

The fire pattern continued at Flying Fish Point when Mrs Strubb’s kiosk she was leasing was totally destroyed in another mysterious blaze in August 1933.

A detective stated during an inquiry into the blaze that he believed the kiosk had been wilfully set on fire. However, there was no evidence pointing to any individual.

George Strubb was back working as a barman at the replacement Cairns’ Crown Hotel in 1937 before he was appointed “agent” or manager in 1940, and returned as the licensee in 1943.

The following year, George Strubb accused his wife Elizabeth of desertion, and filed for divorce, which he was granted in 1944. The German immigrant, now 53 years of age, took the license of the Aloomba Hotel that same year. Strubb would go-on to host the Aloomba pub for almost a decade.

While hosting the Aloomba Hotel, Strubb had a relationship with Eileen Ballantyne, and the couple had a child together. His new partner, Eileen was woken by the smell of smoke I the early hours of October 6 1949.

Rushing along the burning balcony of the hotel, Eileen escaped down a back stairway in her night clothes, desperately holding her 12-months-old child in her arms. She noticed flames coming from a room in which there was a refrigerator. The balcony was burning fiercely when she made her escape, and within a few minutes the hotel was engulfed in flames.

There was no water supply, at Aloomba and the family lost everything. It was later determined a short-circuit in the refrigerator room caused the fire. The Innisfail newspaper, the Evening Advocate reported on 6 October 1948:

FIRE EARLY THIS MORNING DESTROYED

ALOOMBA HOTEL; THREE MAKE DASH TO SAFETY

THREE people dashed to safety this morning when the Aloomba hotel they were in caught alight. All their personal belongings were lost. They managed to save only a sewing machine and the clothes they were wearing. It is not known yet what caused the fire. When it started at 3.30am at the hotel, the Gordonvale Fire Brigade was called. By the time they reached the hotel, four miles south of Gordonvale, it was too far gone for anything to be done. Aloomba railway station directly across the road caught alight as the result of the intense heat radiated from the hotel.

STATION THREATENED

All attention was then turned to saving the station from damage. The fire brigade was handicapped as there is no water at Aloomba. Onlookers had to join in with firemen to help carry buckets of water from two tanks which are about 50 yards away from the fire. As soon as the roof of the station, which is made of wood, caught alight Station Master G. Wilson, who was sleeping on the station, raced out. Seeing the station alight he made for the parcels office. With the help of six men from a bridge gang camped nearby he shifted all valuables and parcels from the office. Mr. Wilson said that if there had been no help the station would have been lost. Damage to the station was very slight. Nothing of value was lost. Mr. Wilson said that if there had been the slightest breeze, the station would have “gone up in no time” but luckily there was no wind.

TELEPHONE DESTROYED

All telephone communications and electric light wires were destroyed. By 10am all telephone connections were again restored. The Aloomba hotel is owned by P. J. Doyle, Wines and Spirits Pty Ltd, Lake Street, Cairns. South British insurance holds the policy for the Aloomba hotel. Licensee of the hotel is George Strub and with him at the time of the fire, were his wife and daughter. Aloomba was regarded as a first class hotel. It was a two story hotel and was recently painted. Five men from the Gordonvale fire brigade attended the fire, under Fire Chief W. A. Eddie. The hotel burnt itself out at 5.30am. It is still being watched to see there are no more outbreaks.

Despite media reports at the time that Eileen was Stubb’s wife, records shows that the pair was not married. George Strubb, at 59, married, 40-year-old Eileen Ballantyne in 1950.

Immediately after the fire, a temporary bar was built on the site. Strubb was in the news again in 1952, when he was fined £25 for opening his temporary bar for the sale of liquor on a Sunday morning.

Attempts to rebuild the hotel were thwarted by the expense and Aloomba’s dwindling population. The Cairns Post reported on 22 September 1953 that the Mulgrave Shire Council went into bat for Strubb, after he considered relinquishing his license at Aloomba. The publican said he was unable to afford the £40,000 replacement pub required by the Queensland Licensing Commission. The newspaper reported:

PROPOSED NEW ALOOMBA HOTEL

TOO COSTLY TO BUILD

Mulgrave Shire Council Seeks a Review of Plans

The Mulgrave Shire Council is to seek the modification of Licensing Commission plans for a new £40,000 hotel at Aloomba following intimation by the present licensees that, because of the excessive costs involved in the rebuilding of the proposed hotel, they would prefer to relinquish the license.

A decision to direct a plea for reconsideration was made yesterday at the council’s monthly meeting. The owners’ letter, dealt with by the council’s finance committee and referred to the general meeting, asked the council to accept the surrender of their licence so the hotel could be operated by them under the provisions of the Local Government Act.

TOWN “A WHITE ELEPHANT”

Cr. J. A. McAlloon said the licensees had been asked to agree to the building of a hotel worth £30,000 to £40,000 in a town which was “definitely deteriorating.” If the owners relinquished the licence, and the town lost the hotel, the town would become “a white elephant,” he added.

Cr. McAlloon moved that the commission be asked to give consideration to a modification of the plans in conformity with the size of the town of Aloomba and the conditions existing there.

Cr. D. W. Christensen, seconding the motion, said a similar situation existed at Freshwater where the money for the building of a costly hotel simply could not be raised.

Cr. C. A. R. Harris also sup-ported the motion, stressing that considerable numbers of working men, who were employed in the area, would be deprived of their knock-off time beer if the hotel was to close down.

Cr. A K. Evans said he did not think accommodation demands at Aloomba called for the building of such an expensive hotel.

Cr. A. O. Todd: “A lot of sly grog joints will spring up all over the place if the commission persists in this attitude. Evidently it assesses values in a similar manner to the Cane Prices Board, appraisal of farm values.”

The Licensing Commission advised the Mulgrave Shire Council in early 1954 that it had approved working plans and specifications for a scaled-back replacement pub. The new Aloomba Hotel was not required to be two-storey. The new hotel would be a single storey brick building with bar, lounge and two rooms of accommodation for the public.

Northern Australian Breweries Ltd., a subsidiary of Carlton United Breweries, advertised for tenders in June 1954, and the new Aloomba Hotel opened later that year with a new publican at the helm.

The license was transferred from George Strubb to Harry Cambers Dawson in May 1954. George Strubb retired and died in Cairns in 1958 at the age of 67.

The scaled-back redevelopment of the Aloomba Hotel was undoubtedly the right decision by its licensee and owner in 1954.

A major blow to trade at the Aloomba pub came in the late 1950s when it was announced that the main highway between Cairns and Townsville would by-pass the town. The Bruce Highway, which had brought vital trade past the front door of the Aloomba pub for almost 60 years, would be rebuilt further west on high-country.  

The Aloomba Bypass began construction in 1959. The section from Mulgrave River at Gordonvale eventually by-passed Aloomba altogether when stage three was completed as far south as Leumann Road in 1963. The bypass was completed as far south as Assman Road in 1966.

Coupled with a dramatic drop in the number of men cutting cane due to mechanisation, and the detouring of traffic around the town, Aloomba Hotel suffered considerably with the loss in trade.

During the 1970s the hotel was hosted by the Neary family.

The Nearys are a pioneering North Queensland family, whose roots go back to the early days of South Johnstone, Innisfail and Cairns.

Ronald Neary was in his early 40s when he, his wife, Muriel and children took over the Aloomba pub about 1972. He was a well-known identity having been a successful sportsman in his youth, excelling in football and swimming.

His son, Ronald Charles Neary said he had fond memories of growing-up in the Aloomba Hotel.

“I was always given the chore of bottling Cairns Draught into bottles for fill and tag and making sure all the reticulation was done working to its coldest – and rotation of stock,” he said.

“The hotel was a Carlton United Brewery pub; nice earner before they took the highway away and harvesters came in. Mum and dad did ok, but we went back to Tully and my old man ran the Tully RSL for near on 20 odd years.”

Ronald Desmond Neary died in 2006 at the age of 78, and was laid to rest in the Tully Lawn Cemetery. His wife, Muriel died in 2022 at the age of 92 and rests with her husband at Tully.

It seems only fitting that Cairns identity, Tom Hedley would become the owner of the Aloomba Hotel. Following in the footsteps of Patrick Joseph Doyle, one of Cairns’ most successful hoteliers, Hedley acquired the Aloomba pub in 1983.

Known as ‘Barramundi Tom’, because he was said to drive a hard bargain, the entrepreneur, like P. J. Doyle, would go onto become one of North Queensland’s richest and most successful hoteliers.

A plumber turned property developer Tom Hedley’s fame was on the rise in the early 1980s. He was involved in residential projects, shopping centres and, of course, pubs.

Hedley rose to prominence in 2006, when Coles (then Coles Myer) agreed to buy Hedley Hotels Group for $306 million. The deal included 103 bottle shops, 17 bottle shop sites and 36 hotels. Hedley though kept the freehold of 30 pubs – including his beloved Red Beret Hotel at Freshwater.

After renovating the Aloomba Hotel, Hedley sold it to his nephew Ken Robson and his wife Sheila in 1985.

Maxine Herbert and Peter Dragojlo bought the pub from the Robsons in August 1988, and have for 36 years continued the custodianship of their small country pub.

“I would find it difficult to leave here,” Maxine said. “But, Peter and I are not getting any younger.

“If we are offered the right price, we would likely sell the pub. But, I don’t want to leave Aloomba, and would like to see out my days here. It’s a special place.”

_{© Copyright Mick Roberts 2025}

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Categories: Australian Hotels, Publicans, Queensland hotels

Tags: Aloomba