TO understand the timber and iron of the Red Beret Hotel in Redlynch, one must first understand the iron and grit of the men and women who carved Far North Queensland out of the rainforest. The hotel’s story does not begin with a cold schooner pulled behind a modern timber bar; it begins with horse teams dragging heavy wagons through unmapped mountain passes, with flash floods sweeping through rainforest gullies, and with a legacy of pioneer determination passed down through blood and sweat.
The Pioneer Bloodline: The Molloy Legacy
Before Daniel Peter Edward Molloy ever drove a nail into the frame of a Redlynch pub, his path was shaped by a family that refused to bow to the wild frontier.
His father, Patrick Molloy, was a towering Irishman from Curragh Kildare who landed in Brisbane in 1863. Turning down an offer to join the police force, Patrick sought absolute freedom. He worked the early railway lines, sheared sheep in the western outback, and ventured deep into the northern goldfields. Along the way, he married Ellen Fearon, a courageous young woman who had survived a shipwreck off the Queensland coast when her vessel, the Southern Belle, was blown out to sea and sank.
Together, Patrick and Ellen became legendary figures in North Queensland. In 1876, Patrick earned the historic honour of being the first pioneer to haul a wheeled vehicle through the dense Atherton scrub, blazing a rugged track between Atherton and Tolga that travelers would use for generations. Life on the trail was brutal. Wild aboriginal warriors speared Patrick’s team horses on the Port Douglas Range, forcing him to trek all the way to Cooktown for working bullocks while Ellen stayed behind in a lonely camp at Northcote, guarding their two babies without a doctor, nurse, or another white woman for miles.
Later, while searching for lost bullocks near Rifle Creek, Patrick stumbled across a massive outcrop of copper, discovering the site that would become Mount Molloy. He mined the rich ore, carted it by bullock team to Port Douglas, and shipped it straight to Swansea, England.
It was into this world of unyielding frontier endurance that Daniel Peter Edward Molloy was born on April 16, 1887, at Rocky Plains near Mareeba. Raised in a homestead built from solid native cedar, Dan inherited his father’s restless drive, his mother’s quiet strength, and a deep, practical understanding of timber, sweat, and opportunity.
Raising the Redlynch Hotel: 1925–1927
By the mid-1920s, Dan Molloy was a seasoned bush carpenter and builder with a keen eye for progress. He married Margaret Egan in 1914, and as their family grew to include four daughters, Dan looked toward the thriving sugarcane country and railway hubs nestled under the shadow of the Whitfield Range.
Redlynch was growing rapidly, serving as a vital nexus for railway workers, cane cutters, and timber men. Recognising that the bustling township needed a proper social sanctuary, Dan applied in July 1925 for a conditional license to construct a brand-new hotel on Subdivision 7 of Portion 118, right along the surveyed main road.
Dan didn’t just invest in the venue; he physically built it. Drawing on his trade as a carpenter, he raised a grand, multi-story timber building complete with wide, sweeping verandahs designed to catch the tropical breezes flowing down the valley.
Even before the roof was fully completed, the venue became a magnet for the community. On the evening of Wednesday, December 23, 1925, Dan hosted a massive social evening inside the open frame of the rising building. Locals gathered among the fresh sawdust and framed walls to celebrate Christmas, dancing under the stars with an M.C. named Rhodes steering the festivities.
By March 1926, Dan officially lodged his notice for a Licensed Victualler’s License. The grand opening was set for Thursday, April 8, 1926. To mark the occasion, Dan threw open the doors and treated the entire district to an hour of free flowing beer from 7pm to 8pm.
From day one, the Redlynch Hotel was more than a watering hole; it was the heart of the district. Dan hosted grand euchre parties and dances on the hotel’s expansive upstairs balcony to raise vital funds for the Cairns Ambulance Brigade, bringing together families from Freshwater, Redlynch, and Stratford.
A Life of Rough Roads, Floods, and Carpentry
Though Dan Molloy built the Redlynch Hotel to last, his spirit was as restless as his father’s. In June 1927, after 14 months as publican, Dan transferred the license of the Redlynch Hotel. By December of that year, he had taken up the license for the newly constructed Carlton Hotel at Fishery Creek, welcoming patrons with another legendary session of free drinks.
Dan remained at Fishery Creek until late 1929 before returning to his true passion: building and carpentry. Settling back in the Mareeba and Kuranda districts, his skilled hands shaped the infrastructure of the Tablelands. In 1930, when the Barron River threatened to sweep away the bridge at Oak Forest, Council entrusted Dan to lead the emergency repairs. He worked at breakneck speed, maneuvering massive 64-foot timber girders into place just ahead of the oncoming wet season floods. In 1935, he constructed the iconic Yungaburra recreational hall, further solidifying his reputation as one of the region’s finest builders.
Yet, as the decades rolled on, the rugged hinterland kept calling him back. By the late 1940s, Dan was working a remote mining lease at the old Northcote Mine, 22 miles west of Mareeba—the very place where his mother had guarded her infants in a tent 70 years earlier.
In February 1949, tragedy nearly claimed the 61-year-old pioneer. Stricken with severe illness and isolated by torrential monsoon rains, Dan lay trapped in his remote bush camp, unable to move. When word reached Mareeba, a daring relief party consisting of police officers, ambulance bearers, and local bushmen set out into the storm.
For three nightmare days, the party battled flooded rivers, mud-choked tracks, and roaring torrents. They were forced to abandon their vehicles at Granite Creek, haul heavy medical supplies on foot, and navigate impassable river crossings at Mackay’s Creek and the Leadingham River. Four members of the rescue team became hopelessly lost in the pitch-black, dripping scrub for a night.
Undeterred, the men secured horses, pushed through the deluge, and finally reached Dan’s camp. Ambulance bearer Leslie Beames administered life-saving care to Dan, who had developed severe pneumonia on top of his initial condition. Carrying him on an agonising return journey through swollen streams, the party straggled into Mareeba Hospital at 6pm on the third day, barely saving the old builder’s life.
The Final Chapter of Dan Molloy
Dan Molloy survived that wild ordeal in the Northcote mud, showing the same iron constitution that had sustained his parents. He lived another 17 years, watching the Far North transition from a rough timber-and-mining frontier into a modern, thriving region.
On December 30, 1966, Daniel Peter Edward Molloy died in his 80th year. He was laid to rest far from the tropical valley of Redlynch, buried in the historic cemetery at Charters Towers, Queensland. He left behind his wife Margaret, their four daughters, and a legacy forged in timber, stone, and community spirit.
Though Dan was gone, the hotel he had envisioned and built in 1925 stood firm against the tropical elements, ready for its next great transformation.
Rebirth: Max Gorman and the Red Beret
In the mid-1960s, around the very time old Dan Molloy was drawing his final breaths, a new era began at the pub. Max and Colleen Gorman stepped in as the new publicans, breathing fresh energy into the venue.
Max Gorman was a man of intense discipline and quiet pride, shaped profoundly by his past service as an Australian Army paratrooper. Together, Max and Colleen modernised the operations while preserving the warm, unpretentious hospitality that had defined the hotel since the 1920s. Under their stewardship, the venue became the absolute social anchor for the rapidly expanding residential communities of the Redlynch valley.
Then, in the 1970s, disaster struck. A fierce, sweeping fire tore through the historic structure. In a matter of hours, decades of hand-hewn timber, memories, and local heritage were reduced to smoldering ashes.
Where others might have seen total loss, Max Gorman saw a duty to rebuild. Drawing on the same stubborn resilience that had driven Dan Molloy 50 years earlier, Max immediately cleared the wreckage and set to work reconstructing a modern, multi-purpose hotel in the familiar ‘Queenslander’ style on the historic footprint.
When the new venue proudly reopened its doors, Max gave it a name that honored his military heritage and the airborne brotherhood he had served with: The Red Beret Hotel.
“Named in honor of military courage, built on the foundations of pioneer spirit.”
Today the Red Beret Hotel is owned by 76-year-old Tom Hedley, often known locally as “Barramundi Tom”. Hedley has owned the Red Beret for about 30 years, having purchased the pub during the mid-1990s as his first and long-standing personal venue.
From that time, the prominent Far North Queensland property developer built a vast portfolio of pubs across Australia under Hedley Leisure & Gaming (HLG).
In 2006, he sold his massive empire of pubs to Coles Myer for $328 million, but famously insisted on excluding the Red Beret because it was his first and local watering hole.
The pub baron has gradually rebuilt his investment footprint through Far North Hotels, acquiring regional venues like the Parkview Tavern and Great Northern Hotel in Gordonvale, the Ellis Beach Tavern, and expanding properties surrounding the Red Beret.
A Living Heritage
Today, the Red Beret Hotel remains one of Far North Queensland’s most famous and beloved landmarks. Though modern amenities and expanded dining areas now cater to thousands of locals and visitors, the soul of the hotel remains anchored in the past.
When patrons sit on the wide verandahs today, drinking a cold beer as the tropical breeze rolls off the surrounding rainforest mountains, they are enjoying a sanctuary first imagined by a bush carpenter named Dan Molloy, preserved through the courage of a rescue party in the floods of 1949, and reborn through the dedication of an ex-paratrooper named Max Gorman. That hospitality tradition continues today under the stewardship of today’s owner, Tom Hedley, in this, its centenary year.
Read more about the Red Beret at The Time Gents story: Road Trip: Far North Queensland
© Copyright Mick Roberts 2026
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Categories: Australian Hotels, Publicans, Queensland hotels
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