The Buttery, Uki
In 1908 local dairy farmers approached the North Coast Co-operative Butter Company to build a butter factory in Uki. They had sufficient shareholders to guarantee to supply enough cream to make two and a half tons of butter a week and by 1914 the Uki factory turned over 149 tons of butter.In the early days of the village, the cool rooms of the old butter factory were used to keep the pub's beer kegs cold, and some workers were known to tap them on the sly!Two employee cottages were erected for the manager at 1450 Kyogle Rd and the engineer at 1452 Kyogle Rd. which had water lapping underneath the floorboards during the 1954, 1956 & 2017 floods. A decision was made in 1938 to rebuild the Uki Factory [by replacing the timber walls] with reinforced concrete and steel with a high-quality render finish. The factory was closed down on 30th September 1947 after considerable local opposition. The building continued to operate as a depot and outlet for small goods produced by Norco, finally closing its doors for good in the 1960s.The butter churn was sold to local farmer Bernard Kenneally who never collected it. It is believed to be the only surviving butter churn in the country. It was customary for a fire to be lit in a drum in the buttery building during dances at the Hall and much "social interaction" took place away from the lights.A Shooting at the FactorySoon after the butter factory closed, the local Higginbottom and Stapleton boys decided it would be great fun at night to sneak up the many steps to the tall tank stand at the back of the factory to climb into the tanks to go swimming. The boys were frightened of Connie Walls, the butter factory caretaker at the time, and they took great pains not to be caught by her. They thought it was great fun at night to make a loud noise with sticks hitting the galvanised railing that ran around the top of the fence at the Uki War Memorial. On many occasions, Connie threatened them with retribution if they continued to annoy her. One night, she appeared with a shotgun and fired towards the War Memorial. The pellets made a terrible noise when they hit the galvanised pipe, and Colin Higginbottom was shot in the leg with pellets.Continue up Kyogle Road, away from the village centre, for a short distance.
The Uki Butcher
Before refrigeration, the cream carriers would bring in orders from the local farmers. Their meat order would be cut up and wrapped in butcher's paper, with the final layer, a page or two from the local newspaper.The local children would take a bundle of newspapers to the butcher and receive sixpence for their trouble. The farmer's name was written on each parcel in pencil so the cream carriers knew which cream can to put the meat into. The butcher cut the meat on a thick block from a large tree stump and mounted it on 4 short legs. Each afternoon the block would be scrubbed down with a wire brush, the floor swept, and a fresh layer of sawdust from the sawmill next door spread over it. Because of the lack of refrigeration and the short life of ice, the local housewives needed to visit the butcher most days.Mr C Connor opened the butcher shop around 1909, initially at 1446 Kyogle Road, with a small house further behind. This house burnt down in the 1930s. C. Connor also had a branch shop and slaughter yard at Terragon. About 1933 I. Imeson was the butcher. According to Les Burger, Mr Imeson never talked much.I remember him buying a cow off dad one time. When he got to the bails, he said, "G'day". Walked in and said, "How much?" Dad said, "Oh, about four pounds." He said, "Give you ninety bob." Never said another word, and off he went.Dad branched off to go to the house, and he turned and said, "Send a man on Tuesday." Nobody could ever complain about him because he never said anything to complain about.Quite a few of the business people would get bad debts. By the time they took action, they'd be three months in. Dad tells, he'd be going through his books, Mr Imeson, and he'd come against a bad pay, and he goes, "Damn! Damn! Damn!" and he'd belt the book.) Mr Imeson was known by the locals as I-kee Imeson because they thought he kept his thumb on the scales when he weighed the meat for his customers. John Donahue.The Butchers BoyIn 1912 Lionel Mitchell, at the age of 11, did deliveries by horseback for Mr Connor from the Uki shop to customers as far as the Terragon shop, where he would reload and continue to the top end of Byrrill Creek where Bob Butler would be waiting to give him breakfast and to hear the latest news from Uki.Changing TimesThe shop was moved to its position in 1933, and a new residence was built on the original site. After several owners, the butcher shop finally closed for business on the 5th of May, 2007.In 2007 a combined Pharmacy and a Dentist opened in the building. The pharmacy closed in 2011, and Uki Dental Surgery continues to operate here.Walk a little further up the road to hear about Uki's Ghost...
The Old Sawmill. - The Uki Timber Company
In 1909 Lou Parker purchased the sawmill from a firm on the Richmond for £48. The mill was transported by boat to Murwillumbah and then barged up Dunbible Creek. From there, it was loaded onto a bullock dray and travelled over from Stokers Siding through Smiths Creek to Uki.The sawmill had initially been destined for Terragon but when the bullock team got to the Uki site, the wagon carrying the heavy steam engines got bogged. No effort by the team could shift the load, so the owner decided that that was where the mill would be located.When they were halfway up "Saw Mill Hill", as it was always called, logs were rolled from the wagons and nudged down to the mill. The mill was sold to Messrs G. Newall and W. Walters on January 2nd 1912. Nellie O'Sullivan's dad, George Johnson, helped Lou Parker bring the sawmill to Uki. He was a tailer-out. He was the man that stood behind the logs as they pushed them through the rolling saws, the circular saws. He was the highest-paid man."When we first came to Uki, we lived in a tent on the left-hand side going into Uki, just over the bridge, on the river bank there. In a tent! Our bed was sticks in the ground with corn or chaff bags on other sticks sitting on these prongs. That was my bed. I can remember a flood came up, and Dad carried me. They woke me up, and he said, "Come on, dear, you've got to get out; the water's coming in your bed." I looked, and it was right up. I suppose it was wet underneath, and he carried me chest high up to the road.Nellie O'Sullivan Oral Family History T.R.M. UkiAt one time, the bullock teams would leave logs destined for the mill on the triangle between Rowlands Creek Road and Kyogle Road (where the Uki War Memorial now stands) until there was room for the logs to be delivered to the mill. The mill closed in 1926, was dismantled, and the parts were sold by public auction. Lover's LaneAt one time, courting couples would meet at the mill and spend time sitting together on the logs.Ella Mitchell said "You know I can't recall this timber leaving this mill, and yet I can remember Lionel and I had our name in the Tweed Call, a naughty little paper written here. We had our name on it for doing a bit of courting on one of the Mill logs. "Timber workers are often depicted as hard-working, hard living, hard drinking and hard-bitten, and possibly it is true of some of them, especially those with no family ties. The vast loneliness away from civilisation was made up for when they hit Town for provisions. Some stayed until the money was exhausted; the cycle would commence again.The pioneering nature of the job meant these men did not lead an idyllic life in the bush. The support of family and natural contentment with what they were endeavouring to achieve substituted for monetary gain.
Does Uki have a Ghost?
The two-storied timber house at 1442 Kyogle Road was built in 1960 for the McIntyre family from timber milled at the Kunghurloo Mill, Kunghur. The house opposite No. 1431 Kyogle Road was built as a residence for the Uki sawmill. Mr Lou Parker was the mill's first owner and lived with his family at this residence. He had a disabled daughter who used a wheelchair following a botched tonsil operation at 18 months of age. The children of the local mill workers used to spend time with her, although she couldn't speak. The last mention of her in any records was when she was in her teens. In the early 1980s, Mrs Dulcie Rayward (a lady who wore the most magnificent hats) walked into the hallway leading to the front door and saw a young woman in a long white dress. The apparition stood there for a moment, looked at Dulcie and then slowly faded away. The second time Dulcie saw the woman, she was standing in the same spot. Dulcie tried to slowly approach her and say hello. The figure turned to her, lingered for some time, and slowly faded again.That was the last time Dulcie saw her ghost. Some of our Historical Society members can tell you about their own sightings!Walk back towards the village and cross Kyogle Road to the War Memorial.
The Circus Comes to Town
The Catholic Church once owned the paddock where Village &Co cafe now stands. When Gerald Parker donated the land where the current Catholic Church stands, funds from the sale of the paddock financed the church build. Bullocks and other cattle were kept in the paddock, close to the sale yards on the corner of Mitchell Street and Rowlands Creek Road. The CircusCircuses also used this paddock to pitch their tents when they came to Uki. Once when the circus truck broke down, circus folk walked some of the circus animals from Uki to Nimbin. The village children were excited to see the very unusual sight of an elephant strolling down the road. Local farmers were most upset when the camels went past, as their horses went wild when they smelt the camels. In a panic, the horses broke down fences, injuring themselves as they plunged through the barbed wire.
The War Memorial
Background The Uki War Memorial was designed by Sir John Sulman and built by Messrs Roberts and Davis of Lismore. The local Postmaster Charlie Milsom and general store owner Len Loder both WW1 Veterans were responsible for organising public donations to finance the project. The memorial was built with Gosford Stone. It was decided to have four tablets of Bowral trachyte, one on each face with one tablet to contain the names of those killed in action. The original intention was to have those names only. Still, the decision was made to record the names of all the 93 volunteers who enlisted from the area, those who fell and those who returned (a most unusual decision as usually only the names of the fallen were recorded). The total cost of the memorial, including erecting a galvanised fence, was £497.Initially, the memorial had two large clock faces driven by batteries from a master clock in the Uki public school.DedicationThe memorial was unveiled on Saturday, 10th December 1927 by Mrs George Sweetnam senior, who had the distinction of being the oldest lady resident of the South Arm who lost a son in the Great War. There was impressive silence as Mrs Sweetnam pulled a cord, allowing the flags draping the monument to flutter. The people stood with bared heads, and the Murwillumbah Town Band rendered the National Anthem. The chairman of the Memorial Committee was Mr D. C. Marshall, who is known as Uki's father.The ladies of Uki organised a stall in the Uki School of Arts during the day.The plaque commemorating WW2 servicemen and women was unveiled after the Anzac Day March that marshalled at the Mount Warning Hotel and marched to the War Memorial in 1952.The plaques for Korea, Vietnam and Malaysia were unveiled by Sir Roden Cutler Tuesday 16th October 1973.Over the years, the memorial and grounds have been maintained by the Uki RSL members. In 1993 the RSL decided to upgrade the memorial by replacing the old tiles with granite, resurfacing and repainting the structure and replacing the overhead power lines and light with a ground-mounted flood light and underground power at the cost of approx. $6,000 (the Uki RSL raised the money through Friday night raffles held at the Mount Warning Hotel). Following the refurbishment of the memorial, Tweed Shire Council accepted responsibility for the maintenance of the memorial and surrounding area.Dawn services are held every Anzac Day, and Remembrance Day is held on 11th November.The Plants at the MemorialThe cycads growing on the Memorial grounds are descendants of those planted in 1927.The Gallipoli Pine is traced back to a pine that grew at Plateau 400 Lone Pine on the battlefields of Gallipoli. It was planted at Uki School on 11th November 2001 by Eric (Chubb) Sweetnam (WW2 digger and member of Uki RSL) and Mary Roberts (member of Uki RSL Women's Auxiliary).
Uki Public School
In1895, Rowlands Creek School opened in D. C. Marshall's barn on Rowlands Creek, with eight children enrolled. Children in the area were needed by their parents to milk cows and help on the farm, so the school was a 'half-time' school, meaning that they only attended for half the normal school day.Byangum school was also on "half-time", so the teacher from Uki would alternate weeks between both schools.Rowlands Creek School moved to a new one-room building on the present school site in 1901. The school was renamed Uki Public School in 1906, and the small one-room building was converted to a weather shed when a larger school was built in 1908 at the cost of £198/15/3. In 1911 a petition was signed by 55 residents to have the school moved to allow natural progress of village growth and made way for more businesses to move into the centre of the village. In March 1912, Dora Fisher was teaching children in the weather shed. The school had two classrooms, a verandah, and a school residence. The principal Mr O'Kelly paid £48 rent per annum for the lodging in 1912.
Peate's Store and Holy Trinity Anglican Church
One of the first businesses to operate at Uki 1905 was Peate's Store, owned by John Peate. Peate's originally sold lollies from a tent erected in what was to become the butter factory yard until their shop was built. He sold confectionery, homemade drinks and journals. His wife Shah and her sister Sue were of Indian birth and they were to suffer at the hands of local bigots. The shop was destroyed by fire.A boarding house was established in the village from1910 in 1915, where the Uki school residence used to be. Meals were served at 1/- per head. Many bullock drivers ate there after a hard day's work. Social occasions and send-offs were specially catered for. It is said to have been operated with the owners, Miss Knox and Mrs Norris, rendering "personal service, which was mutually satisfying to all." Perhaps not such a sleepy village after all!
Uki School of Arts
Uki Mechanics' Institute was built in 1904 and is the oldest standing building in Uki. It was built on a reserve for travelling stock with donated material from local farmers, and local saw-millers cut the timber. The Uki School of Arts was built in 1911 on land adjacent to the Mechanics' Institute. The frame consists of several species of hardwood timber donated by local land owners, financed by district residents, and with an overdraft of £700. In 1915 the dedication of the Uki School of Arts was revoked and replaced by a Dedication for a Literary Institute.There are no records of when the library and reading room were opened, but it was in operation during WW1. The library also supplemented the Uki school, especially during WWI. Locals could read books, newspapers and farming gazettes etc. In 1923, it cost 3pence a fine for an overdue library book. The last mention of the library was in the late 1930s. In 1924 the halls were joined together, and the façade was put on the front of the small Hall. It has acted as a centre for social, religious and educational activities for over 100 years.In 1914 roller skating was held every Friday night. This ceased two years later due to the wooden floor being damaged. Nellie O'Sullivan remembered when she lived in Blacksmiths Lane, she could hear people skating in the Hall of a night. Roller skating began again for a short time during WW2. Ella Mitchell's violin story: There was one chap who used to always come down here and bring his violin. It was out of tune, of course, poor old chap, he thought he could play. When he'd get to the door, the door-keeper'd look at him and he'd say "Orchestra" and he'd have his violin case and he'd walk straight in and he didn't have to pay. The musicians said that they had a job to keep him away from the microphone at the end when they played "God Save the King".The Hall was initially lit by Kerosene Lamps. Gaslights then electricity were installed in the Hall in November 1948 at the cost of £42/2/6, lights cost £16/11/-.Travelling picture shows often used the Hall. A part of the chimney used to remove the extreme heat from the projector is still in place in the main Hall. The Uki R.S.L. met in the Hall from its inception in 1920, and the Hall houses R.S.L. memorabilia, photos, and records of the South Arm military history from the Boer war to the present day.
Uki Post Office
A postal service started at Rowlands Creek as a Receiving Office in 1901. The mail was delivered twice weekly by horseback with an annual fee of £22/15/-. The Uki Post Office opened on April 1st 1910, in leased premises near the old Uki bank. The Postmistress also conducted a fruit and confectionary store in the building. About 79 householders residing within three miles of Uki received mail, and were able to receive telegrams from 1911.Election NightsIn 1911, when the first telephone service to Uki P.O. was connected, election night dances would be held in the Hall. Each election update was phoned in, the music would stop, and the postmaster would announce the bulletins from the hall stage.In 1945 the postmaster announced the sinking of the Bismark, a German Boat sunk in WW2, from the hall stage). 1912 the telephone exchange at Uki was from 9 am to 6 pm on Sundays and holidays excepted. Besides the P.O., the list of subscribers was No.2 G. Parker, No.3 E. S. & A. Bank, and No.4 W. O. Irvine.In 1913 the Uki Hall Trustees permitted W.O. Irvine (who started business in 1905/1906) to erect a small building for his auctioneer business to be built on hall land between the Hall and the general store. In 1914 the original Uki post office building burnt down. The fire was first discovered in the Post office. The post office operated out of the Hall for a short time and then moved in with W. O. Irvine in his auctioneer building.In October 1914, the Uki progress association called a meeting to raise a petition to make a request to the postal department to say that the present office, even without a letterbox and public telephone bureau, is what the public is asked to put up with. One cannot hold a telephone communication of a private nature without everyone in the vicinity of the other overhearing every word of the conversation.A branch of the Commonwealth Savings Bank was opened, and a money order facility was introduced at Uki P.O. on May 1st 1915. The P.O. also sold confectionary, fruit, summer drinks and stationery. Mr C. V. Milsom took over as postmaster on November 1st 1919, which began three generations of the Milsom family as postmasters at Uki.In 1922 there was a telephone switchboard with ten subscribers connected. Mr Milsom was given permission by the hall trust to build a small residence behind the P.O. An automatic telephone service at Uki was cut over at 3.30 pm on April 3rd 1941. A new automatic exchange was re-sited from the main road to Rowlands Creek Road in 1967. The changeover was necessary from the old three-digit code to the six-digit code for subscriber numbers.Today Uki Post offers postal services, coffee and exhibits local artists. Stop for a cup!
Ryder's Pioneer Store - Uki Supermaket
Early settlers used the services provided by big city stores that provided a mail order service or travelled to Murwillumbah. The first Uki General Store was built in 1909 for F. J. Ryder. He also had a residence on the rear laneway beside the store. In early 1914 the store was sold to Mr A. S. Loder, a local bullock driver.Fire on Main StreetOn Sunday, August 30th, a fire started in the Uki Post Office, which was situated next to the E.S. & A. Bank. The fire destroyed the Bank, Post Office, Auctioneers Premises, Loder's Residence and the General Store. After the fire, the store operated out of the Uki Hall (with the help of Murwillumbah merchants supplying goods) until a new two-storey building was built, with the residence on the top floor. The store re-opened for business on May 24th 1915. The Biggest Store North of NewcastleThe shop sold everything, including furniture, drapery, groceries, clothing, footwear, produce and hardware. At that time reported having the most extensive floor space of any store between Newcastle and Brisbane. At one time, Loder's Store had a staff of 14 employees. A sign on the store's inside wall stated that they sold "Everything from a Needle to an Anchor". During the time of Len Loder, the grocery section had sawdust on the floor sprinkled with kerosene to stop dust from rising. The back or bulk store had everything from barbed wire to bagged stock feed. The staff weighed out smaller quantities of grocery items, such as rice, sugar, dried fruits etc., in brown paper bags with the item and weight stamped on the bags. Many farmers bought sugar in 70-pound bags and flour in 50pound bags at six shillings and 11-pence a bag for the flour. Most businesses was done by a monthly account system with the local farmers. The general store helped some people who had a financially challenging time by carrying them over until they received their cream cheque. One such farmer whose account was long overdue received a note from Len Loder with his account saying, "I would like a cheque with this" the reply came back from the farmer saying, "so would I". The cream carriers would bring a shopping list given to them by the farmer to the store in the morning. The order would be filled, and the goods would be sent back to the farmer by the cream carrier. As much as 75% of business was done by the orders brought in by the cream carriers.Cash purchases were dealt with by a cash cup system. This was a container spring loaded which was mounted on a wire. The shop attendant placed the docket and money in the cup, which travelled the wire to the overhead office on releasing the spring. The cashier put the change in the cup and then returned it to the appropriate section of the store to complete the transaction.When shop assistant Lionel Mitchell was courting Ella Womersley, who worked in the store office, he would send up lollies to her via the overhead wire system. The first petrol bowsers were installed at the curbside. These were seven to eight feet high with a sight bowl on top. The shop assistant pumped the petrol from an underground tank with a hand pump to the sight bowl holding four to six gallons. With the release of the valve, the petrol gravitated through a hose into the vehicle.In the 1930s, the Loder family did a world tour and brought back crockery from Czechoslovakia featuring images of Uki and stamped Loder's store Uki and cutlery from Sheffield, England marked with Loder's Store. In 1926 Len Loder won a window competition conducted by a state-wide trade promotion scheme.Mr A.S Loder had a mortal set on dogs coming into the shop. They'd do up the groceries and put them along the side of the counter on the floor to be picked up. The dogs would sneak in and lift their leg on the groceries, and he had a terrible set on this. One day a little fox terrier came, and he spotted a dog with its leg up. Poor Mr Loder made a flying run and a big kick, and his other leg went from under him, and he landed on his back. They tell us people in the shop had to go outside to refrain from laughing. Not the Dentist!A room in the residence above the store was used by dentist T. C. Hawkes for surgery in 1926. He attended once a week, and the then local children recall how scared they were to have to walk over from the school and then climb the very steep steps at the side of the building to reach his surgery and then sit in the Dentist's chair when they needed a filling as "Old Chud" as he was known would use a treadle drill to drill their teeth. Imagine him wobbling backwards and forwards trying to drill your teeth?
The English, Scottish & Australian Bank, now the Fair Trade Shop
Mr Groves, a blacksmith, initially used this site. The building was constructed in 1910 by David Cleaton Marshall, who leased it to the E. S. & A. Bank. The bank opened in 1910. There were stables at the back of the building. Local farmer, Gerald Parker sat overnight in front of the safe with a loaded double-barrelled shotgun until bank representatives from Murwillumbah could arrive to empty the safe; by all reports, the contents survived the fire intact.The original building had been built in timber. When it was rebuilt around the original vault and fireplaces, it was built in expensive fibro imported from France by James Hardie Pty Ltd. (fibro was not made in Australia till 1917). When the bank was rebuilt in 1914, the owner was Edmund Williams. During the outbreak of influenza in 1919, the Uki School was used as a hospital, and the kitchen of the bank residence was used to prepare the food for the patients. In 1942 the back residence was rented to the Connolly family for 15/- per week. The Murwillumbah manager came out one day each week until the bank agency finally closed on 30th July 1955. From 1960 to 1961, the bank area was used as a meeting place for the Buffalo Lodge for £1 per meeting until local church dignitaries acted to cease the activities. In 1967 the Connolly family purchased the entire building.The front bank section was used by Lloyd Roberts (a relative of the Connolly’s) as a banana ripening room and to make banana cases, and as a banana packing shed. In 1991 two barrel loads of carbide mixed with water to ripen bananas were removed from the old safe. The building had the front awning removed sometime around 1972/1973.The old bank was restored and heritage listed in 1992. Quaint touches included in the restoration were a repolished yellow teak floor, a unique key for the historic Chubb safe and a “scrubbed up” old stove dating from the 1800s. The colours used to paint the restored building are the same as the original structure. The old lino was removed, tested, and found to have been made around the turn of the twentieth century and brought out from Scotland. The Chubb safe was built in the front room where customers would have been served and were locked with a two-key system. The strongroom door came from England in 1905 and was sold to the E. S. & A. Bank for £54/7/-. The old bank has since housed a Chiropractor, an Art Gallery and Pottery, and an organic food store fair trading store.
Mt Warning Hotel
The land was originally owned by Henry Sweetnam. Mr Wern had a share farm there, and it was farmed in 1903 by Mr George Barnes and his family.The original Mount Warning Hotel was built in 1914 with Fowler Fitzhenry and his uncle Fowler Askew. In 1916 Fowler Fitzhenry bought Fowler Askew out. Fowler Fitzhenry took a petition around Uki and had 75% of the population sign to meet the licensing board's requirements. He also intended to supply accommodation and meals for travellers and their horses. When Mr Fowler Fitzhenry applied in January 1914 for a publicans licence to build the hotel at Uki, the local licensing police sergeant objected because he believed the quiet and good order of the neighbourhood would be disturbed. At that time, the proposed hotel did not have any road access, and when the Rowlands Creek bridge was to be built. The new road put through the hotel would abut on the proposed road, but the local licencing court granted him permission. The hotel officially opened on December 22nd 1914, costing £1,500. The first beer was delivered by Mr J. H. Faulks with his four horse-drawn wagons. Sonny Brims always said he had the first beer at the hotel when he was 8 or 9 years old. The first publican was Fitzhenry's uncle Fowler Askew. Stables were built at the back of the hotel with hitching rails at the front. The hotel had some permanent borders. Most of the boarders were people who worked at Loder's store, the bakery, or just men who didn't have a home and worked locally.Guests would receive a cuppa in bed each morning. Those who required a cut lunch would have one ready. Occasionally there would be travellers or school doctors, and in flood time, those unable to get home because of crossings and low bridges being flooded. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served with a three-course meal mid-day and evenings. The dining room had six-seater tables with starched damask tablecloths and folded napkins with a waitress with a menu to take orders. You had to put a kero tin to heat on the back of the wood-burning stove for baths and carry it up all those stairs. The ladies' salon and a piano were downstairs on the hotel's right. Walking out the door of the dining room into the hallway, on the right was a locked room, a scullery, water tanks, and the back stairs. Upstairs on the left was a sitting room, the licensee family used the front bedrooms on the left, and the permanent boarders used the bedrooms towards the back of the hotel. P. Collins had a billiard room, and a barber shop was next to the hotel. When the women from the Perch Creek and Kunghur area rode a horse into Murwillumbah and returned to Uki Fowler, Fitzhenry would put their horse in the hotel yard and give them a room for the night and breakfast next morning at no charge as he said the ride was too long for them to continue home in one day.In 1924 a house painter at the hotel was found unconscious at the foot of a ladder. He was admitted to the hospital but died shortly after. In 1943 while listening to the wireless at the Hotel, Mr Alfred Modini, aged 30, sneezed suddenly, then collapsed and died. Approx during WW2, there was a laundry woman, but she used to drink the metho for the irons. She'd get a bit wobbly towards the end of the day. WW2, you couldn't get spirits. Bunny Ebbsley made lantana rum, we believe he had his still somewhere on Rowlands Creek, that was sold at the hotel. It was, according to those who remembered it "pretty rough". In 1958 there was a quiet horse in Uki that would eat anything. One day, the horse walked up the sloped landing to the hotel's second floor, and Stan Young gave him a plate of bacon and eggs which the horse downed with relish. The next day the performance was repeated with the "Daily News" on hand to record the event.Stanley James Young became the publican on September 28th 1958. We were told that a fight occurred in the hotel, and a customer punched Young. He fell backwards, hit his head on the bar, and died; his wife Laurel Young took over as publican on September 14th 1961.On Saturday night, February 23rd 2013, the Mount Warning Hotel was destroyed by fire. The publican and his staff were closing for the night when the fire started. It started in an electrical board with sparks, flames and smoke billowing out, and as it was at the base of the stairwell, it just went straight up like a chimney. When the top level let go, there was a huge fireball. Fire trucks came from Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads, and local fire brigades kept pouring so much water on the flames they emptied the village reservoir, but it was all they could do to contain the fire. Luckily no one was hurt. The fire reignited in the early hours of Monday morning February 25th and further burnt the back of the hotel that had been left standing after the first fire.The new Mount Warning Hotel opened on Saturday, August 22nd 2015, with crowds of people flocking to see the new building. The official opening ceremony took place on Saturday, September 5th 2015. Tony Ellis from Doon Doon had the first official beer after the opening. Stop in for a bite to eat and a drink - you deserve it!We thank the Tweed Regional Museum for their cooperation on access to the audio and images for this walking tour.
