Glen Davis Hotel

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1939

4 September 1939
Hotel for Glen Davis?
Edith Mary Gardiner, licensee of the Hotel Mt. Victoria, has given notice that she intends to apply to the licensing court at Lithgow on September 26 for the transfer of the licence from Mt. Victoria to premises to be built at Glen Davis1 .

11 September 1939

Proposed Hotel

IT is expected that the application, for a transfer of the licence of the Hotel Mount Victoria from Mount Victoria to Glen Davis will be heard by the Licenses Reduction Board at Lithgow on September 282 .

28 September 1939

Hotel Application

THE hearing of the application to transfer the licence of the Hotel Mount Victoria to Glen Davis commenced at Lithgow to-day (Thursday)3 .

2 October 1939
GLEN DAVIS HOTEL
Estimated Cost £17,000 TRANSFER GRANTED
As application for the transfer of the license of the Hotel Mt. Victoria. Mt. Victoria, to a site at Glen Davis was granted at Lithgow Licensing Court on Thursday before Messrs. W. C. Gelkie and V. H. Wells, members of the N.S.W. Licensing Bench.
The licensing Inspector of the Hartley district (Sergt. H. H. Buchan) said he proposed to withdraw an objection which had been lodged.
Mr. E. H. Houen, solicitor, of Blackheath, who appeared for the applicant. Mrs. Edith Mary Gardiner, said he had received the consent of the owner, William Joseph Lees, to the proposed removal.
Albert George Morgan, clerk of the Licensing Court at Lithgow, said that both sites were in the Hartley licensing district.
Oswald Henry Little, of Springwood, registered surveyor, said the proposed site was about 2½ miles inside the licensing district of Hartley. Mt. Victoria was also within the boundary of the licensing district.
Henry Ignatius McGuigan, construction engineer engaged by National Oil Pty. Ltd. at Glen Davis, told the court there were approximately 280 men engaged by the company, 240 by Concrete Construction, 175 by the Public Works Department on road construction, in addition to about 100 members of families. The population of the town would greatly increase as the work proceeded. There were already 12 cottages and a hostel and two banks. Witness said the nearest licensed premises were at Newnes, a distance of six miles, over a "jack rabbit" route, which was very inaccessible. It was 71 miles distant by road. The nearest licensed premises by road were at Capertee, 26 miles away. Premises at Glen Davis were essential.
John Raymond Spencer, architect, Young street, Sydney, who prepared the plans and specifications, approved of by Blaxland Shire Council, said they proposed to put in sufficient tanks to be used throughout the hotel. He did not see any trouble in providing water for all services. Bore water would also be used. The plans provided for a modern hotel at an estimated cost of £17,000.
It would take from seven to eight months to complete. The bars were in keeping with the modern design of today. There was an accommodation of approximately 100ft. of bar counter.
Mrs. Edith Mary Gardiner said the Hotel Mt. Victoria was not a modern one, and the house trade was indifferent. She believed she would do better business if she moved to the new premises. - "Mercury.4 "

2 October 1939
(This article is quite illegible in parts, if anyone can provide the missing words it would be greatly appreciated.)

RIGHT UP-TO-DATE
New Hotel for Glen Davis
In less than a year Glen Davis is the centre of the Australian oil field, should have a hotel of the most modern design, judging by plans drawn up by Mr. J. R. Spencer, a Sydney architect (says the "Mercury.") The hotel, which, it is estimated will cost about £17,000, will be completed in seven or eight months, and work will begin almost immediately. The building will be of two storeys, and will be designed and equipped on city lines. On the ground floor provision is made for a reception room, and a spacious dining room to accommodate 75 guests. The public bar will be detached from the residential portion. There will be 25 bedrooms. Verandahs will be built on the ground floor, and on the second floor, ? facing east, west ? ? will be erected. ? ? and garden plots are to be ? ? the hotel will be serviced with all modern conveniences5 .

1939

7 November 1939
GLEN DAVIS HOTEL
Protest Against Monopoly
An amendment enlarging the scope of Ministerial control of the granting of liquor licences at the township of Glen Davis was inserted by the Government in the bill dealing with the formation of the town, in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
The bill in its original form provided that any application for the removal of a publican's licence, or for an order conditionally granting the removal of a publican's licence to premises within the area, or within a distance of one mile from the boundary of the area, should not be granted except with the consent in writing of the Minister.
The new clause inserted still gives the Minister power to refuse to consent to an application, and extends the provision to a publican's licence, a spirit merchant's licence, and an Australian wine licence.
A feature of the debate was the protest made by the leader of the Op position, Mr. McKell, against granting a Minister power which, he said, should rightly belong to the Licensing Court. It was the very negation of the exisiting liquor legislation, he claimed.
The new clause was also criticised in the Legislative Council.
The point was first brought forward by Mr. Hamilton Knight, who declared that there should be no monopoly, and that the Licensing Court should be the sole deciding authority6 .

Glen Davis Public School - Glen Davis Hotel NRS-15051-1-15-[775]-10

Government Printing Office 1 - 23438 - Glen Davis hotel 01-01-1941 to 31-12-1941 NRS-4481-3-[7/16082]-St25241

Glen Davis Hotel View from 1941 NRS-4481-3-[7/16082]-St25261

Glen Davis view showing shops and hotel NRS-15051-1-15-[775]-2

1940

31 May 1940
GLEN DAVIS HOTEL
Company Is Registered
Glen Davis Hotel, Pty., Ltd., has been registered in Sydney. The company has a capital of £50,000, in £1 shares. First directors are William J. Lees and John S. Henderson.
The company is completing a hotel on the new township site at Glen Davis at a cost of about £15,000. It is to be opened early next month.
An application for the removal of the licence of the hotel Mt. Victoria, Mt. Victoria, to Glen Davis, will be heard at Lithgow licensing court on Tuesday. The applicant is Edith Mary Gardiner.
Some time ago a conditional order for the removal of the licence to premises to be erected on land in Canobla-avenue, Glen Davis, was granted. The building has been completed, and Mrs. Gardiner is now applying for a final order of removal7 .

10 June 1940
Hotel Glen Davis
Opened on Saturday
The removal of the licence of the Hotel Mt. Victoria, Mt. Victoria, to premises at Glen Davis, to be known as the Hotel Glen Davis,
was granted before the chairman of the licensing court, Mr. J. W. M. Laidlaw, at Lithgow on Tuesday.
The application was made by Edith Mary Gardiner, for whom Mr. E. Houen of Blackheath appeared.
The licensing inspector (Sergt. H. H. Buchan stated that the building was very satisfactory, and had been constructed according to plan.
Following the approval of the application, the transfer of the Hotel Glen Davis to William Hillier Henderson was granted.
The hotel is a modern one, and there is approximately 100ft. of bar counter. It cost £17,000. Construction was begun in October last.
The building is of two storeys, and is designed and equipped on city lines. On the ground floor there is a reception room and spacious dining room to accommodate 75 guests. The public bar has been detached from the residential portion. There are 25 bedrooms. The hotel is served with all modern conveniences. It was opened on Saturday8 .

1941

13 March 1941
BEER BAN
Off at Glen Davis
MR. Henderson, licensee of the Glen Davis Hotel, stated that the beer strike at that centre is now definitely off. The prices charged at Glen Davis are: - 10oz. mugs, 6d; pints, 1/-; flagons, 2/6, with a refund of 6d on the bottle: bottled beer, 2/-. The position is said to be unchanged at Lithgow, no negotiations for a settlement having been made by either side9 .

1954

14 October 1954
They give up the "ghost" now
Glen Davis to lose its only hotel
Residents of the "ghost" town Glen Davis, near Lithgow, feel they have reached "the bottom of the keg".
Owner-licensee Mr. W. H. Henderson is pulling out because, he says, "I'm just wasting my time Financially, I'm on the wrong side altogether.”
Old-timers who have lived in and around the town are seriously thinking of leaving when the Glen Davis hotel closes.
One man lamented, "When the work goes and the hotel goes, too, there's no good reason to stay."
Since the Federal Government closed down its shale oil industry two years ago Glen Davis has slipped rapidly into obscurity.
Last beer
After 14 years' mining, shale oil - the town's life-blood - was found too expensive to refine.
The once-thriving community of 2000 has dwindled to 195 - mostly optimists - living in a timeless atmosphere among deserted houses.
Glen Davis today is without a policeman, clergyman, chemist, ambulance or doctor, but it has a coroner.
And now, as though to seal the town's fate, hotel owner-licensee Henderson within six weeks will pull his last beer, put up the shutters for the last time and quit.
"Business was good when we built and opened the hotel in 1940," Mr. Henderson said today.
"But these days we're lucky to take £1 before lunch.
"And if we get 20 or 30 drinkers in the bar at a time - well, that's a crowd.
"A bit grim"
The Licensing Board gave Mr. Henderson permission to de-licence last April.
All that has to be settled now is compensation for loss of business and drop in land and licence values - payable from a fund administered by the board.
He added, "It will be a bit grim for some of the old fellows who like their pot.
"But I think as soon as we go quite a few will move out with us."
Despite Mr. Henderson's pessimism there are still some in the town hoping for a return to better days.
William Ferguson, 60, who with his wife started a bakery there in 1940, is one of them.
"We expect to stick it out as long as possible," he said10 .

2010

Designed by the Sydney architectural firm of Spencer & Spencer for its owner W.J. Lees the Glen Davis Hotel cost 15 000 pounds to build, an unheard-of sum for a Central West hotel. Its entry was graced by an ornate columned portico, which alone made the statement that here was a hotel that would do more than simply service the needs of its community. It would be a symbol of the town’s coming wealth. The stunning Art Deco-inspired staircase led upstairs to 25 rooms, all of which enjoyed magnificent views of the surrounding escarpments, and it had a sumptuous lounge and formal dining room. The Glen Davis Hotel was the only hotel in New South Wales that had its main bar separate to the main building, an unambiguous statement that Australia was far from immune to the class-ridden influences inherited from England. The hotel even had upstairs and downstairs cleaners. When a nondescript motorcyclist rode into town in the early 1950s with plans to start an open-air cinema, the then manager of the hotel refused to put him up.
The bar was once the largest in terms of surface area in New South Wales, and the hotel was a proud and confident expression of elegance and prosperity at a time when the future of Glen Davis, with the government underwriting its growth and endless deposits of shale beneath it, seemed guaranteed, and over the years the hotel hosted visiting dignitaries and government officials. But the good times would not last.
Both the mine and the hotel closed in 1952. The mine’s plant and machinery were disassembled and taken away, and the hotel was purchased by the Catholic Church, who converted it into a Marist Brothers retreat house, and the bar became a chapel. But even the Marists found the isolation of Glen Davis, by then largely abandoned, too much to bear and it was sold to a local man who used it as a farmhouse. The last chapter in the restoration process will be the workers’ bar. Adam and Alison have already begun uncovering the original tiled floor, which played host to a peculiarly Glen Davis form of two-up where you not only relied on the luck of the toss but also that the coins landed within the tile’s grout lines.
The bar area, which is taking a necessary back seat to the main building, will eventually be transformed into a function centre with a commercial kitchen, selling locally brewed boutique beers and wines from the Mudgee– Rylstone region. There are plans afoot to re-create a replica of the original bar, though on a somewhat smaller and less ‘troublesome’ scale11 .

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