Linda Valley & Royal Hotel

This is Linda, population not very many.

The internets are being unhelpful at giving up useful information, and I obviously have boxes of books to unpack somewhere. So I’ll have to rely on what I know, which is, um, not much. Still former mining town, you can probably tell the story yourself πŸ™‚

I did find some old postcards in the State Library’s collection, so you can see that early in the 20th century it was town of some substance, with multiple hotels (I think four at one point) and boarding houses, a hall and shops. It was, at one point, the main town for workers at the nearby North Mt Lyell mine, and the end point of the railway. A busy little place, with a population in the hundreds.

Then it faded over the years, and the buildings went away, until it is as you see it today.

It does, however, have a phone box!

Before going on with the photos, something else that amuses me. This is the cafe on the Google maps. Now click on Map view (top right). Well, I think it’s cool πŸ™‚

This is what brings people to the place, the cafe or, more relevant today, the hotel.

Except we’re not getting there via this bridge.

As it says above the door, this is the Royal Hotel, built by T Kelly in 1910.

Actually, the Royal Hotel was built by Mr George Eaves. I’m not sure when, but by 1902 it was available for sale or let when it seems to have been bought by Percy Waxman. In 1908 he moved on, and the hotel passed to Tom Kelly, who had previously run a boarding house in Linda. Then in January 1910 the hotel burnt down


The owner considered rebuilding in re-inforced concrete (being ornamental and fire resistant) and headed off to Waratah to inspect a concrete hotel up there.

Which it seems he did, and that’s the current building. Now what happened after that, I’m not sure. The town declined, as mining towns did, and I think the hotel was finally closed in the 1950s. Some decades later, it was bought and, I’m fairly sure it was fully restored and was operating as a business, until it burnt down again.


Now that’s an indoor swimming pool.

Actually, it’s an art installation, for the Queenstown Heritage & Arts Festival. From their programme:

Thr Drink, by Peter Waller
Located: The old dining room of the Royal Hotel in Linda

Tasmanian Artist Peter Waller has carefully attended to what is a significant site for the area and for the festival – Linda and nearby Gormanstan housed many who worked at the North Mt Lyell mine at the time of the fire. The subtle intervention is the artist’s attempt to stand back and allow the place to speak for itself.

This is the back of the site, but it looks to me like it might have been the original front

with that as the main entrance.

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