The tale of a pub older than Ipswich: 175yrs

Very few hotels have the history this place does.

The original two-storey PA Hotel.

IN the late 1800s, Ipswich mourned the passing of a great man who opened what would later become one of the oldest and most iconic pubs in Queensland.

Denis Bergin of Dinmore owned several coal mines at Bergin's Hill, Bundamba, and was also the first man to throw open the doors of the Prince Alfred Hotel, Booval.

Mr Bergin could never know that his legacy would last 175 years and the site where his humble wooden hotel once stood would eventually be replaced with a modern pub, named the state's best.

The original Prince Alfred Hotel at Booval opened in 1842 in a time when cotton was king and before Ipswich was called Ipswich.

The timber building was surrounded by 40 acres of cotton fields and contained seven rooms with a piggery, garden, store-room, dairy, stables, stockyard and milking bail.

The original cold room still stands today.

Newspaper records show in 1891 the hotel underwent a major revamp - worth £540 - carried out by a Mr Sydney and was heralded as one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the district.

PA Hotel owners Mary-Anne and Clive Johnson are pleased to have been awarded the Queensland Hotels Association 2016 Hotel of the Year. Picture: Rob Williams

A detailed article in the Queensland Times, dated Saturday, July 11, 1891, describes an elegant, two-storey wooden building with wide verandahs and balconies.

The doors were crafted from solid pine and the entrance expertly finished with stain glass lighting and iron ornaments.

By then the hotel, described as first-class following the 1891 works, was run by a builder named Mr John Reilly who held the hotel licence from 1891 to 1898, although it was still owned by Mrs Bergin following her husband's death.

"Just above the first landing is a fancy stained-glass window - 7ft 6 inches -with side lights of green hue," the Queensland Times article reads.

"The general design of the place speaks in no uncertain sound, of the ability of the architect Mr J Farrelly...

"The building is now quite an ornament to Booval... with all the requisites for a first-class hotel."

Over the years, the Prince Alfred has been the scene for a number of quirky incidents.

In 1910 a "death adder" was reportedly found lying in the middle of the road near the hotel.

Mary and John Reilly, hotel licensees at the PA Hotal during the late 1800s. Photo circa 1895. Picture: F A Whitehead, Picture Ipswich I

The 15-inch-long snake was killed and, according to a newspaper article, the body was taken by a Cr Bognuda who intended to put it on display at the Prince Alfred Hotel in a jar full of alcohol, to help those living nearby identify the creature.

Five years later, in November 1915, the ambulance brigade was called to the hotel, a little after 3pm.

They found a 13-year-old lad with "nasty burns to the face through an explosion of gun powder".

It seems the young man had been living at the pub and was playing with the explosive powder when he dropped a lit match.

According to the newspaper report, the boy recovered without serious injury.

Throughout the years, the licence passed hands a few times, but the Prince Alfred Hotel's licence never lapsed, making it the longest running in Queensland.

In 1961, the historic, fancy, two-storey wooden hotel burnt down. Only the cold room survived.

A new, concrete, low-set building opened in 1963 as a replacement.

It would be decades before the next visionary came along to restore the hotel to its former glory, if not with a modern twist.

In 1987, the Johnson family bought the PA Hotel from Carlton and United Breweries.

Since then they've rebranded and refurbished the hotel numerous times, starting with Swags Family Restaurant, filled with Australiana, which opened in 1990.

The space once occupied by the award-winning Swags is now Char'd restaurant, opened in 2012.

Owners Clive and Mary-Anne Johnson have honoured the hotel's history in more ways than one; Char'd drew its name from the memory of the tinber hotel which burnt down.

Plantations Restaurant was named after the cotton fields that surrounded the original hotel and the walls are adorned with snippets of information that tell the hotel's historic tale.

Clive said his family was proud to continue developing a hotel with such a rich past.

"History is incredibly important to us and very few hotels have the history this place does," Clive said.

"We are very proud to own the Prince Alfred; to think that it dates back to the days when the city of Ipswich was vying to be the capital of Queensland. Ipswich has a rich history which it treasures - we're honoured to be a part of that."

Timeline

• 1840: Squatters from the Darling Downs cross Dividing Range and visit Limestone
• 1841: Great flood in Ipswich and Brisbane
• 1842: Prince Alfred Hotel, Booval opens
• 1843: Governor Gipps changes the name of the township from Limestone to Ipswich
• 1847: The first courthouse and lock-up are erected in the police paddock
• 1866: Booval Hotel is put up for sale.
• 1867: The very first train from Ipswich arrives in Toowoomba
• 1889: Lewis Thomas builds Brynhyfryd at Blackstone Hill
• 1891: John Reilly takes over licence of PA Hotel and the hotel undergoes a major renovation
• 1961: The PA Hotel burns down
• 1963: PA Hotel reopens as a low-set building
• 1987: The Johnson family buys the PA Hotel
• 1990: Swags Family Restaurant opens
• 2012: Char'd Restaurant opens
• 2017: Celebration of 175 years of the PA Hotel