Buchanan’s Hotel: The famous Townsville landmark that burned to the ground 40 years ago
One of Townsville’s most famous hotels was visited by an American President, Donald Bradman, and featured on a postage stamp before it burnt to the ground. Read the remarkable story behind the building.
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One of Townsville’s most famous and historic landmarks, Buchanan’s Hotel, hosted Sir Donald Bradman, a future US President, and appeared as an Australian postage stamp before it burnt to the ground 40 years ago.
The hotel’s fascinating history has been told by Dr Dorothy and Bruce Gibson-Wilde in a book titled A Pattern of Pubs, Hotels of Townsville.
First-generation Scottish immigrant David Buchanan had been a hotelkeeper in Townsville for 27 years before he built Buchanan’s Hotel, or “Buchs” as it was affectionately known at 12 Sturt St, in 1903.
It replaced the Prince of Wales hotel which burnt down the previous year.
Costing £12,000, and including every up-to-date feature he could find, including gas-lighting and electrically operated bells to summon staff, the three-storey structure was built to rival the Queen’s Hotel on the Strand.
“The verandahs were wreathed in some of Australia’s finest iron lace manufactured by Green’s Foundry,” the book said.
“The delicate tracery of cast and wrought iron interspersed with stained glass that protected its verandahs epitomised the exuberant architecture of an era that was already passing when the hotel was built.
“The dining saloon, measuring 50ft by 10ft, featured a most attractive pressed steel ceiling, while the bedrooms with extra high walls opened onto broad shady verandas to catch every breeze.”
In World War II, the hotel was taken over by American forces and Lyndon B Johnon, a future American President, added his name to the guest register.
He returned to Buchanan’s Hotel on October 23, 1966, during a presidential tour of Australia, where he referred to the hotel in a speech to a Townsville crowd of about 50,000.
In 1973, Buch’s was featured on an Australian postal stamp as part of a series of stamps depicting beautiful buildings, along with Melbourne’ Como House and the Sydney Opera House.
After the fire burnt down Buchanan’s Hotel on August 9, 1982, the CBD site has remained stubbornly empty over the past 40 years, serving as a carpark.
In March 2021, the site was sold to Sydney-based private developers for $1.1 million.
It remains unclear what their plans were for the site.
Inside the fight to save Buchanan’s Hotel
When Buchanan’s Hotel caught fire on August 9, 1982, Neil Lesmond was one of the first Townsville firefighters to arrive at the blaze.
Based in Hervey Bay and retired, Mr Lesmond, 68, still vividly remembers the “dangerous job” when he nearly lost his life fighting the Buchanan’s Hotel fire four decades ago.
Mr Lesmond had only begun working as a Townsville firefighter the previous year, following a decade in the Navy.
On the night of the fire, the fire crews had an “interesting evening”, receiving a lecture from the station officer about building construction.
“Around midnight, we were one of the first crews to arrive. The fire was burning around the bar area but mostly upstairs where we couldn’t get, where we thought a couple of people were squatting,” Mr Lesmond said.
“It was an old pub with old materials, and the fire got away from us.”
He remembered that there were some “locals” who turned up wanting to help.
There was a point when they were inside the building fighting the fire, when he heard a “big thump”, got tapped on the shoulder, and took a half step backwards.
“That's when a massive beam burst through the ceiling and bounced at our feet,” he said.
“Had we stayed there, we may not be talking today.”
They retreated to the alleyway next to the Telstra building, and seeing the hotel’s wall “waving”, Mr Lesmond yelled for everyone to get out of the area.
The crews resorted to using aerial appliances to fight the fire, before the roof eventually
collapsed.
After going back to the station and cleaning up, Mr Lesmond said he and a colleague went out for breakfast at the Metropole Hotel later that morning.
“All the drinkers from Buchanan’s were there and the old blokes recognised the two of us from the fire, some of them were cranky that we hadn’t saved the pub” he said.
“We nearly got into a fight having a post-work drink, we decided to leave”.
Mr Lesmond recently drove past the site during a family visit and said it was a shame that it remained vacant.
“My wife would like to see something built there one day,” he said.
Growing up inside Buchs
When it comes to the Buchanan’s Hotel, not many people knew it as well as Townsville retiree Margaret Adler.
Castle Hill residents, Ms Adler, 77 and her husband Geoff, celebrated their wedding reception at the hotel in 1965.
Their wedding came at the end of 11 years that she spent growing up in the hotel between the ages of 9 and 20, after her parents Jack and Maud Seawright became the licensees and part-owners of Buchanan’s in 1954.
“My memory of Buchanan’s was that it was a first class hotel in Townsville catering to local business people, commercial travellers, people coming to Townsville for holidays, business or medical services.
“It was built to a very high standard. The only other hotel of this standard was the Queens Hotel on the Strand.”
She said there was an elegant staircase in the foyer, a writing room for guests on the first floor, with the walls covered in a beautiful embossed wallpaper, and the ceilings clad with pressed metal.
“It had a very large dining room with high ceilings and tables with white damask table cloths and sparkling silver settings,” she said.
“Christmas lunch was a big event here with the dining room decked out in decorations and flowers.
“I was responsible for collecting the flowers from the cascara trees in the backyard, decorating the tables, and making the Christmas punch.”
Her parents were strict, with no big parties tolerated.
“I do remember how dad threw a drunk out and he came back after closing time with a cut-throat razor, and was going to cut his throat.
“It was only that there was a big wrought iron gate in the side of the hotel and dad was able to get the gate between himself and this other fellow. That was a bit hair raising.”
As a member of the Commercial Travellers Association, the hotel’s regulars were commercial travellers who took advantage of six display rooms at the rear of the hotel to display their wares for Townsville businesses, including jewellery, clothing, novelty items, and crockery.
“Visitors also came from the country for holidays and medical treatment. The Katter family visited often and people on properties out west were regulars,” she said.
The RAAF recruiting office was just a couple of doors down in Sturt Street.
“They used to accommodate prospective cadets at the hotel while the applicants went through their tests,” she said.
“They were usually well behaved but I remember one lad was turned down, not having passed his tests and he went berserk with a fire extinguisher inside the hotel. He did quite a bit of damage to the wallpaper etc, but this was repaired.”
Ms Adler recounted how her brother David kept passing out while smoking cigarettes in bed and was eventually banished to sleep on the back veranda by their mother.
“The bed would soon catch fire. This way all he had to do was throw the mattress over the verandah into the back yard and put out the fire with the hose,” she said.
After their marriage, the Adlers moved to Melbourne but her family continued to operate the hotel for several years.
“My parents were still there when Lyndon B. Johnon and his wife visited in 1966,” she said.
“He had previously stayed at the hotel on June 8 1942, when he was on a tour of the Pacific, as an observer for President Roosevelt.”
Ms Adler has seen Buchanan’s Hotel appear on calendars, postcards, souvenirs and a postage stamp — which she still has to this day.
“My parents had sold the hotel before it was burned down. It was such an elegant building. It’s a shame it’s been lost,” she said.
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Originally published as Buchanan’s Hotel: The famous Townsville landmark that burned to the ground 40 years ago
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