Commercial Hotel - Cairns, 1930 - 1959

News of the day

Cairns Post, Friday 30 April 1926, page 4

New Hotel Opened in Cairns.

The new Commercial Hotel, at the corner, of Sheridan arid Spence Streets, was formally opened on Wednesday evening with a flourish of trumpets (or is it hogsheads?), when the customary distribution of free drinks prevailed for a brisk hour or two. Things were fairly willing right through the piece and six persons were kept busy behind the bar serving men, who seemed to have saved up a real East of Suez thirst. Good "stands" were declared to be worth at lease five .shillings. Some hogsheads of the new Breheny's Brew were on tap, and judging by the looks of satisfaction, it was "the goods." This beer is the new bulk brew of the Cairns Brewing' Co., produced by two members of the famous Breheny family, who have joined the Cairns Company since its recent reorganisation

Background

The Commercial Hotel is of local significance. It was constructed during a period in which a number of new licenses were granted by the Cairns Licensing Board while almost concurrently the Cairns Building by-laws were coming into force. This caused city hotels to be constructed in concrete and in doing so they were completed to a much larger footprint. The Commercial Hotel was one of a number of these surviving city hotels which are an expression of a new building form, and of a boom in city construction which was mostly in concrete.

Courtesy of Cairns Regional Council

 

Discover more