History Notes - The Courthouse Hotel

To begin with, thank you to those, especially Terry, who have kept the History Notes going for the last couple of months. You have all done a most interesting job especially in the car world.

This week I have been presented with a hotel enquiry. The Courthouse Hotel began about 1880 with John Thomas Flynn in charge and its history was followed in through to the Playhouse Hotel just over three years ago in an edition of History Notes.

The early owners have been relatively easily followed through the years until about 1898 when the hotel and several shops on the eastern side of the street were destroyed by fire and it was feared that the Court House Hotel would also be destroyed - 'the verandah woodwork was scorched as well as the signboard and the furniture had been removed for safety.'

The Brent family ran the hotel for a few years after the fire and then passed it on to Henry Faddy in 1904 - it is thought that the second storey was added during his ownership or the next owner, Mrs Swain, and she definitely called it the Central Hotel.

 The history continues through a variety of owners to Claude Charnock in 1949 and it then becomes difficult to list the owners in the 1950s. We have a request for information about Adele lsha Croacker (nee Bolus) who took over the Central Hotel at Barraba from Joseph Blake, in January, 1953. Adele married John Stirling Wackett, who was living in Barraba in 1953 (before he divorced his first wife!). We have a request for information about this couple especially Mr Wackett- has anyone heard of him?

My second topic for this week is a collection of photos taken at shearing time - it is a big shed and there are at least six shearers shearing in a line with the catching pens behind higher than usual doors. The woolpress has a long handle with a bend halfway along to enable a longer stroke.

The shed has a very high pitch with a window up near the top and it appears to be near a creek and there are trees and hills around. Perhaps someone knows where this shed is/was - it is obviously a big one and the truck in one of the photos is a long semi-trailer with something like 24 bales on the lower deck. Any comments on this puzzle are welcome, but it is not Piedmont, Cobbadah Station or Barraba Station.