Weetalibah Hotel
Weetalibah Hotel. Photograph: Lightning Ridge Historical Society.
Weetalibah Hotel (also Weetalibar) was a hotel and coach station on the traveling stock route, located at the Weetalibah Crossing to the north of Lightning Ridge.
The land on which the hotel sat was leased by Henry Nelson and Louis Rich in 1879 along with a further 40 acres to the east. The hotel was built in the same year by John “Jack” Stewart, including various yards and a coach change station.
In 1879, no doubt not long after the hotel had opened, proprietor H. Mussett was advertising Boxing Day races to be held at the hotel, promising a good paddock for visiting horses with abundant grass and water.
The hotel was put up for sale by tender in 1886, the sale ticket included eight acres of government leased land with four-and-a-half lease years remaining. The land included the hotel, buildings, outhouses and stables along with furniture and stock.
Innkeeper Joseph Beckett was fined £30 in 1887 for selling spirits from the hotel without a license.
Beckett contributed to the discovery and commercialisation of black opal mining at Lightning Ridge when, in 1902-1903, he part-managed and funded the syndicate that employed Charlie Nettleton to sink an opal mine shaft on McDonald’s Six Mile ridge. While financially unsuccessful, the syndicate’s actions spurred mining activity and led to Nettleton meeting Jack Murray and gathering together the first parcel of black opal to be sold from Lightning Ridge, to White Cliffs opal buyer Ted Murphy.
In 1909, a parcel of cheques from the Weetalibah Hotel were lost by the mail courier, and later found by a bore contractor on the road between Muckerawa Station and Coonamble. The cheques were valued at £123 and were recovered after sitting on the road for a month.
In 1914 a famous murder occurred at the Weetalibah Hotel, with the stabbing death of coach driver James Davidson at the hands of Chinese immigrant George Chun. Chun was a passenger on Davidson’s coach, stabbing him with a large pocket knife after being allegedly cheated by the driver.
“Arriving at Weetalibah Hotel, 32 miles from Goodooga, owned by Mrs. Becket [sic], we were made very welcome, as one of the party had been a regular visitor in past years when stationed in that district. Saying we would stay for lunch, we talked with Mr. Meldrum of many places, and found on inquiry that he was not any relation to a late engineer of Cobbora Shire, though bearing the same and uncommon name.
Lunch being served, we did justice to cold meat, vegetables, sweets, scones, cakes and cheese, but nearly fell over when told, on asking the charge, that it was one shilling and sixpence. We could not stand that charge in a place where freights are high and nearest rail 62 miles distant, so voluntarily increased the tariff. Having been charged 2s 6d for breakfast, consisting of porridge, chop, bread and butter, in places one-third the distance from. Sydney and a stone’s throw from a railway station, we agreed that reports concerning the hospitality of outback folk were true. Like the landlady of “The Bokhara,” Mrs. Becket was ready with a smile and laugh when King Drought was mentioned.”
The Weetalibah Hotel closed in about 1921, when the building became a private residence. The building burned down in 1926.
Licensees: 1879 - Henry Mussett, 1880 - Washington Harpur, 1882 - David Langwell, 1883 - John Lynch, 1884 - John Hartley, 1885 - John Stewart, 1886 - Leonard Gwyn, 1888 - Joseph Beckett, 1905 - Andrew Barrett, 1907 - Catherine Beckett.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘Weetalibah Hotel - Goodooga Road’, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 27 November 1879, p. 1; ‘Weetalibah Hotel’, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 4 May 1886, p. 1; New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime Sydney, 17 August 1887, iss. 33, p. 257; ‘Coaching Accident’, The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 19 August 1896, p. 4; ‘A Shocking Discovery’, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 31 October 1896, p.; 4; ‘Attempted Suicide’, Western Grazier, 4 November 1896, p. 2; ‘A Lonely Road - Cheques Lie for a Month’, The Argus, 30 August 1909, p. 6; ‘Coach Driver Stabbed’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 June 1914, p. 26; ‘A Mail Driver Murdered - Chinaman Under Arrest’, The Advertiser, 6 June 1914, p. 20; ‘Further Details’, The Grafton Argus and Clarence River General Advertiser’, 8 June 1914, p. 3; Walgett Spectator, 18 June 1914, 8 June 1922; ‘Back Country Jottings - “The West” - The Land of Vast Spaces and Where Things Happen’, The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 14 November 1919, p. 4; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p. 153.