Hotels - Federal Hotel Childers

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: 71 Churchill St, Childers Queensland, Australia
Surnames/tags: O_Reilly Hotels

History

The Federal Hotel is a two-storey timber hotel on a major street intersection at Childers and was constructed c. 1907 for hotelier William Ashby, following the redevelopment of the town centre after a major fire in 1902.^[1]

The growth of the Isis district in the 1890s is reflected in the series of hotels constructed in Childers to accommodate travellers, businessmen and the many seasonal workers in the sugar industry. These included the Isis, Belle Vue, Royal, Queen's and Palace hotels. Ashby sold the Childers Hotel to Johann Kulick, who replaced it in 1899 with a handsome two-storey brick building called the Grand Hotel. This was the only building to survive a disastrous fire in 1902 that destroyed most of the timber buildings on that side of the main street in town.^[1]

It is said locally that Ashby approached Kulick in the early 1900s with a view to purchasing the Grand Hotel, before deciding to construct a new hotel diagonally opposite the Grand. The land on which the Federal Hotel is situated was originally granted as a selection to Ernest Dyne but changed hands before being extensively subdivided into town lots in 1892.^[1]

The new hotel was very similar in appearance to a Gladstone hotel designed by F H Faircloth in 1900 and may also have been designed by him, as he was then carrying out extensive work in Childers, following the fire.^[1]

The hotel was leased to Hugh Carter from 1 January 1908 and it was leased for much of its existence, though it remained in possession of the Ashby family for many years after his death in 1920.^[1]

Peter O'Reilly Licensee 1924-1926

For 1 year 8 months in 1924-1926 the Licensee of the Federal Hotel, Childers was Peter O'Reilly (1889-1952)^[2]

In early 1924, Mr. Williams the Palmwoods baker was to take over the Federal Hotel at Childers.^[3] It is not known what the upshot of this reported event was. By 5 June 1924, Peter O'Reilly was running advertisements as the new Licensee of the hotel. He had previously been at the Grand Hotel, Gympie. These advertisements ran in the Catholic Advocate until 28 January 1926. In the following month, an advertisement appeared in the Catholic Advocate announcing that Peter O'Reilly was managing the Metropolitan Hotel, Maryborough.^[4]

For the 1925 Census in Queensland Division of Capricornia, subdivision of Childers, Peter, a hotelkeeper and Maud home duties are listed at the Federal Hotel, Childers

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Wikipedia - Federal Hotel Childers.
2. ↑ 11 July 1924 to 15 January 1926, Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM156847
3. ↑ Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser, Fri 1 Feb 1924, p. 10.
4. ↑ Catholic Advocate, Thu 11 Feb 1926, p. 40.

• Wikipedia contributors, "Federal Hotel, Childers," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_Hotel,_Childers&oldid=962476861 (accessed August 27, 2021).