Moongulla Hotel
Signage from the Castlereagh Highway to Moongulla Station, 2026. Photograph: Russell Gawthorpe.
The Moongulla Hotel was a hotel located on Moongulla Station, between Lightning Ridge and Collarenebri. The hotel opened around 1880, the first licensee was John Doyle.
The Moongulla bore was sunk in 1890, offering a permanent water supply for the station and surrounding farms.
A man named Joseph Evans, a shearer’s delegate, died of heatstroke at the Moongulla Hotel in 1899.
“A message, dated from Collarendabri on Wednesday, states that a man named Joseph Evans dies on Christmas Day from the effects of excessive heat, at Moongulla Hotel. He complained of the heat during the day, and went to lie down on his bed. A few minutes after it was found he was quite dead.”
In 1903, a cash box containing £90 was stolen from proprietor Mrs. Seymour at the hotel. Police were able to locate the heavy box at the bottom of a receiving tank at the Moongulla Bore, but no sign of the cash. Due to a heavy storm, they were unable to continue tracking the thieves.
“R. Close’s woolscouring works at the Moongulla artesian bore”, ‘Artesian Water for Wool-Washing’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser’, 18 February 1899, p. 389.
“The Moongulla bore and experimental farm”, ‘Artesian Water for Wool-Washing’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser’, 18 February 1899, p. 389.
The Moongulla Hotel burned to the ground in February of 1917.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘Artesian Water for Wool-Washing’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser’, 18 February 1899, p. 389; ‘Deaths from the Heat’, The Sydney Wool and Stock Journal', 29 December 1899, p. 14; ‘South Coast - Collarendebri, Monday’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 October 1903, p. 8; ‘Moongulla Hotel Robbery’, Bendigo Advertiser, 9 October 1903, p. 2; ‘Chase After Robbers - The Police Unsuccessful’, The Ballarat Star, 9 October 1903, p. 6; ‘Country Hotel Burnt’, The Armidale Chronicle’, 3 February 1917, p. 4; ‘Moongulla Hotel Destroyed’, Young Witness, 9 February 1917, p. 3; T. Kass, A Thematic History of Walgett Shire - Final Report, September 2003.