Regatta Hotel - Toowong - QLD - Australia - Australian Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This sign is the story of the grand Regatta Hotel situated on the other side of Coronation Drive. Built in 1886, the hotel has survived eight major floods and 13 minor floods.

Early days
During the 1850s-1960s, Toowong was a small settlement within an area
of large estate land and farms.
The Toowong Railway Station on the Brisbane-Ipswich line was opened in 1875. The train services encouraged people to move out to Toowong, buy land in the new suburban estates around the station, and build timber homes for themselves and their families.

By 1876 the first Regatta Hotel was built. This hotel was a single-storey timber building on the Sylvan Road corner, across River Road from the new Toowong-Hill End cross-river ferry.

1880-1890s
The current three-storeyed brick hotel was erected in 1886 for Brisbane publican William Winterford. It was the second Regatta Hotel on the site. and the earlier building was removed to make way for the new premises. The new Regatta was designed by Brisbane architect Richard Galley, who called tenders in February 1886. It was constructed by contractor George Gazzard, at a cost of £4800.
One of a number of large masonry, first-class hotels designed by Galley in the 1880s, the hotel was designed not just for local patronage, but to attract travellers, and in its ornate exterior it reflected the optimism and bravado of the booming Queensland economy of the 1880s.
In March 1887 the Queensland Figaro and Punch reported on the Regatta Hotel, Toowong, and noted: `This splendid hotel has been recently opened by its enterprising proprietor, Mr Winterford. Probably, not even in Brisbane, is there another hotel to which in appearance the Regatta Hotel would stand second. Certainly, there is no hotel in Queensland that has a finer situation. The whole of Toowong (I suppose the prettiest suburb in Brisbane) lies about it, and the pureness of the air, the beauty of the scenery, and the unexceptionable accommodation in the hotel itself makes it a most desirable place for boarders.'
Winterford opened his new hotel anticipating a clientele who would be enticed by the river views, the proximity to town and to the Toowong railway station, the weekend regattas on the doorstep, entertainments such as billiards and boating, a well-stocked wine cellar, large well-ventilated bedrooms, family suites, the luxury of hot and cold baths, and good stabling accommodation. However, neither the hotel's comforts nor the Toowong scenery succeeded in attracting the desired patronage. The hotel was, however, popular with local people from Toowong and from Hill End across t. ie river, where PP Hanlon ran a ferry service. Percy I 4anlon remembers "The Regatta Hotel on the corner was always a source of annoyance to my father because the ferry service ran from 6am to 7pm six days a week and from 8am to 7pm on Sundays. It meant he was the sole operator and he was there for 89 hours a week. Now, we always tried to make the last trip at ten minutes to seven from Toowong; five minutes to seven from Hill End, get back to Toowong and tie up at 7o'clock so you could go home.
But there used to be a lot of fellows from over at Hill End who would journey across the ferry to do their drinking at the Regatta.... Dad used to send me over to round these guys up to get them to go home and of course a lot of them were fairly well intoxicated and some nights you might still be there at half past seven trying to get them to go home but my dad threatened them a couple of times. He locked up and went home and they had to go the long way around the best way they could, whether it was bus and tram or shanks' pony and tram."
The reach of the river in front of the hotel was a popular venue for regattas, with the pretty gardens on the river bank and the hotel itself an attraction for large crowds.
In 1892, the Mayne family commissioned the architect Richard Galley to design their new two-storied house Moorlands, a large building of timber, brick and cast-iron situated on their extensive estate grounds on the city side of Langsville Creek.
Further towards the city you can still seethe observation tower of Moorlands, rising above the trees. From Moorlands James O'Neill Mayne could watch the rowing races on the river and cheer on th- 41. I ong Rowing Club, for which he was patron and life member fr m 1927.

References Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Regatta Hotel Ref. 600331
Queensland Figaro and Punch (Brisbane, Qld : 1885-1889), Saturday 19 March 1887, page 6 Percy Hanlon, 2000, "Oh-ver" History of the Brisbane Cross River Ferries, published P Hanlon. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Entry in the Queensland Heritage Register, Moorlands, Ref. 600052
Pritchard, Jack, 2011, Toowong Rowing Club: 100 Years (plus a few), Brisbane

Age/Event Date: 1850-1860, 1875, 1876, 1880-1890, 1886, 1887, 1892, 1927 Type of Historic Marker: Monument Related Website: [Web Link] Historic Resources.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regatta_Hotel Type of Historic Marker if other: Not listed

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