Just one more day and Summer is officially over! Those of you who don't like the hot weather, don't get too excited, it will not be the end of hot days. Nor will it end the popular pastime of visiting the local Pub for a cold drink after work or play. Pubs or Hotels have been part of the Hills community since the mid 1880s.
The Mahogany Inn began as a military barracks where troops were stationed to protect travellers to York until 1841. It then provided overnight accommodation for travellers until 1884 when Edward and Jane Byfield were granted a Publican’s Licence and opened it as Prince of Wales Inn in 1845. This was the first ‘wayside inn’ in the area before any of the towns were established.
In earlier times Inns and Hotels were required to provide accommodation as travel by horse was slow and a long journey required overnight stops to rest and feed the horses and the humans. Some of the older Hotel buildings still have the bedrooms upstairs, probably useful for storage, but the introduction of Tavern Licences means they can sell beverages without even the requirement to serve a meal as well. Lot Leather opened his hotel in Sawyers Valley in about 1879 to cater for local sawyers and travellers. The early building was replaced in the 1930s by the present structure.
Sawyers Valley Hotel
When construction of the Mundaring Weir and Goldfields Water Supply pipeline began in 1898 the Goldfields Weir Hotel was built to cater for the workers and later the visitors who came to view the dam and enjoy the clear hills air. The name later changed to Mundaring Weir Hotel. Other early hotels still operating are the Mundaring Hotel built by H Hummerston in 1899 to take advantage of the town developing around the spurline to the construction camp for the Mundaring Weir.
Mundaring Hotel built in 1899