Breakfast Creek, c1989

The current hotel was built by William McNaughton Galloway, who was mayor of Brisbane in 1889. This time was a growth period for the Breakfast Creek area with industries such as quarrying and timber-milling. A new Breakfast Creek Bridge opened on 24 May 1889 and a racecourse was constructed at Albion. The architects were Simkin and Ibler and the builders Woollam and Norman.

The hotel opened for business on 17 May 1890.

In February 1893, the Brisbane River flooded and the hotel was 7 to 8 feet underwater. The upper floors were used by many people as a refuge, accessed by climbing up the iron posts that supported the verandahs.

On Saturday 12 January 1895, William McNaughton Galloway fell from a window on the second floor of the Breakfast Creek Hotel, a distance of 17 feet. He received immediate medical attention from a passing doctor and was taken to hospital, but he died about 40 minutes later. In the subsequent magisterial inquiry, it was revealed that Galloway had been drinking heavily over the previous 3 weeks. On the day of his death, he was again intoxicated and the barman, William Floyd, decided to lock Galloway in an upper room of the hotel, hoping Galloway would sleep off his intoxication. Galloway attempted to escape the room by climbing out the window. Having climbed out the window onto a ledge, he tried to jump to a nearby balcony. Although he caught the balcony railings with his hands, one hand gave way and he fell.

Anne Galloway (née Waters), the widow of William Galloway, took over the license of the hotel in April 1895. However, as William Galloway died intestate with a mortgage over the hotel with the Queensland National Bank, the Curator of Intestate Estates became the owner of the property and leased the hotel to Mrs Galloway for six years from August 1895.

In January 1898 the Brisbane River flooded again and the hotel was surrounded by water.

In September 1900, the hotel was sold (subject to the lease to Mrs Galloway) to the brewing company Perkins & Co.

In August 1901, Anne Galloway's lease of the hotel ended and she was not able to obtain a new lease from Perkins & Co. Her response was described as having "seemed to lose her head, wrecking the premises, and pulling down the bar, electric bells, a kitchen range, a copper boiler, and caused the stables to be removed". She refused to give Perkins & Co the possession of the premises by nailing up all the doors of the hotel. It was only when Perkins & Co blocked access to the cellar, through which she was entering and exiting the hotel, that she capitulated and the license was transferred to Michael McGuire. A subsequent long court case followed where the ownership of various fixtures and fittings of the hotel was contested between Perkins & Co and Mrs Galloway.

Image note: Photo is of Breakfast Creek Wharf, comments are about the Hotel (opposite side of the creek).

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