History Notes - Cobbadah Pub
History Notes
Unfortunately, I missed the meeting this week, but members apparently discussed a calendar with a number of heritage photos together with the usual topics. Next month the meeting will be on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
There are a few residents’ descendants of the Singleton family in our district, and we have been asked to spread the word about a Benjamin Singleton re-union to be held down the Hunter on the long weekend in October. There is more information to come.
Last week the Cobbadah Pub fire photo was published. The Cobbadah Pub burnt down on 5th April 1965. The smoke could be seen from “Dunnee”, and my father rang Mrs Goldthorpe at the Post Office to find out where the fire was – “Oh just the Hotel on fire” was the reply and she added that there were a number of men on site.
The photo of the pub fire is a fairly common one with Bill Randall’s Fordson tractor hooked up to a trailer with drums of water – unfortunately, a lack of water was not helping. Harry Crowley is on scene, and he managed to get the piano to safety although it is not visible in the photo. Sadly, this was the end of the Cobbadah Pub which had been on site for almost a hundred years – first as a slab building where the Coach stopped to deliver the Cobbadah and Gulf Creek mail and a formal brick building built about 1902-4 which became a wonderful “waterhole” for travellers especially at the weekend when the hotels in Bingara and Barraba were not allowed to open to residents.
A photo of the brick hotel soon after it was built with typical road vehicles of the day parked out the front. One is a coach with two grey horses and two black or bay horses pulling it – the other three would be private vehicles.
The hotel was demolished after the fire and business was conducted from a tin shed near the northern edge of the cricket ground. It was not long before business closed then the cricket matches moved, a new bridge was constructed and now the traffic passes over the edge of the oval and through the hotel site.