The Terminus Hotel was one of the very early hotels in town that did not survive for long. Others included the Queens, The White Horse, The Western, The All Nations, The Carriers’ Arms, The Welcome Home and The Exchange.
In 1886, the Terminus Hotel stood at (then) 111 Oak Street on land owned by Tom Pyne. Mr. George Long was the Special Victualler License holder of the hotel, usually called Long’s Hotel by the local townspeople.
George Long was married with a wife and three children at the time. He had held a licence for four and a half years prior – The Welcome Home Hotel in Bogantungan for 18 months, the Prince of Wales Hotel in Pine Hill for two years and the Hibernian Hotel in Jericho for 12 months.
On 14 June 1887, the Withersfield Hotel stood on the site of (then) 153 Oak Street. Mr. Patrick Feinn was the Special Victualler License holder. The Withersfield Hotel was originally from a small railway siding west of Anakie, called ‘Withersfield’. It had moved as the railway line moved west before being erected in Barcaldine in 1886, where it stood for the next four years.
In 1887, Mr. Tom Pyne moved to Longreach, and Mr James (Jimmy) Ah Foo became the owner of the Terminus Hotel.
About 17 August 1887, Jimmy Ah Foo changed the name of the Terminus Hotel to the Springsure Hotel.
In May 1890, Mr. Paddy Feinn dismantled his Withersfield Hotel at Barcaldine, put the lot on bullock wagons and took them to the new railway siding of Ilfracombe.
There, the hotel was rebuilt and renamed the Wellshot Hotel after the pastoral station on which it stood. [It continues to trade under the name of the Wellshot Hotel today].
That meant the land near the corner of Oak and Willow Streets was vacant. Jimmy Ah Foo decided to move his single-storey Springsure Hotel (originally the Terminus Hotel) from its site to the vacant block, next to the corner of Oak and Beech Streets.
In 1909, when Owen Devery was the owner, the building burnt down in the street fire. When it was rebuilt in 1910, it was named Devery’s Hotel.
