Western Star Hotel Motel

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Place Category: Out West - QLD and The Outback

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  • Western Star Hotel Motel

    Pub Restaurant / Opening Times

    Western Star Hotel Motel 10am – Midnight
    Sandhill Grill Breakfast 7.30am – 9am Lunch 12 – 2pm Dinner 6.30 – 8.30pm (times vary in summer)

    Accommodation

    Motel: The Motel has been rated at 3 and a half stars by AAA. 4 motel rooms, each room has a queen size bed and a king single, ensuite, light breakfast facilities, TV, air conditioning, telephone and under cover parking. All rooms are serviced daily. With a laundry service available on request.

    Hotel: there are 6 hotel rooms, 4 with 3 single beds and 2 rooms with double bed only. Each room has TV, air con and tea/coffee facilities, refrigerator and are serviced daily. The hotel rooms are in a separate building from the hotel and a very quiet. The amenities are shared and are in the same building. These rooms are being renovated constantly to provide inexpensive accommodation.

    Local Attractions

    Windorah is a small pastoral town on the western side of Coopers Creek. The word Windorah means ‘Big Fish’. The population is 80 – 100 people. It is 246km west of Quilpie, 450km west of Charleville and 1200km west of Brisbane. Two rivers, the Barcoo and the Thompson join together about 35km northeast of Windorah to form Coopers Creek.

    When in flood the Cooper spreads out and is about 24km wide between Windorah and Ingella, and on the main road from Quilpie to Windorah is spreads to about 19km and 5km further up across from Currareva Station to Hammond Downs Station it is 24km wide. Further down the creek it spreads to approximately 64km from Tanbar Station to Keeroongooloo Station.

    On rare occasions the Cooper flows into Lake Eyre in South Australia. The years it has been known to flow into Lake Eyre are 1950, 1955, 1963 and 1971. Others that it should have reached Lake Eyre are 1890, 1891, 1898, 1906, 1910, 1922, 1930, 1936, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1949 and 1951, but as there are no official records it is only an estimate.

    The first settlers to arrive in the Windorah area were J. Costello, Patsy & Jerry Durack Hammond, Tullys, Scaulons and Skehans, in approximately 1867.

    The first Police presence was 1881 when a station building was rented from Quinn & Co, on the of Maine and Virtue Streets. The first policeman was Senior Constable T.O. Porter.

    Windorah Western Star Hotel Motel
    The post office was started on the 18th of July 1881.

    In 1881 Cobb & co coaches started service no.252, from Charleville to Adavale, once a week. It replaced the horseback run. During 1889 this service was replaced to twice weekly. On January 1st 1882 service no. 243 commenced from Adavale to Kyabra, 130 miles. At the same time a service was started from Kyabra to Windorah. These services were by horseback. In 1888 the services were upgraded to coaches. By 1889 the service was direct from Adavale to Windorah. In 1906 the service was still twice weekly and still run by Cobb & Co. coaches. Today the mail service is run twice weekly from Quilpie to Windorah by Sacha Bonsey. Goods are received in Quilpie by rail.

    The first school was opened as a Provisional School on the 30th of July 1888 and was closed and re-opened several times. In 1897 it became a half time school. That was one week at Windorah and the next week at the Crossing. In 1909 it again became a full time Provisional school. It was closed on the 31st of December 1918 and again reopened in 1926 as a Provisional school. The old school building was sold in1924 and school was held in the Windorah town hall until Yaraka school was taken down and rebuilt in Windorah on the 3rd of February 1958, when it became a full time school.

    Tom Costello built the Cosmopolitan Hotel also known as the Royal. Tom was the cousin of John Costello. In 1884 Tom Costello and his family went to Onote near the South Australian border. They returned in 1906 and had the Royal hotel repaired, it had been unoccupied for some time. It was renamed the Cosmopolitan and reopened it for business as a hotel. Tom Costello also built the Royal Hotel. The Cosmopolitan eventually went to ruins. The site now exists as a home situated next door to the Western Star Hotel.

    In 1878 it was stated that Patsy Durack built the Western Star Hotel. There is information from the Historical Society that GJ & CT Fitzwalter started to build the Western Star Hotel in 1879, assisted by Jim Hammond of Tenham station. Quinn & Co built a store the same year. The first race meeting held in Windorah was in 1878.

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