Cnr William & Charles St, Launceston. Google Maps.
Recently demolished.
Photo (and others below), 2016
First licensed to James Lilly 1850, as the Salmon & Ball Hotel.
Owned by James Lilly until his death in 1882, but licensed to William Wilkinson and William & Mary Doodie. When Lilly’s estate was sold, William Doodie purchased the hotel, made improvements and renamed it “River View Hotel”.
An interesting feature of this hotel is it was built on the site of the barque Kains that was dragged ashore and converted to a warehouse. It appears on Smythe’s map of 1835, marked as a ship.
The Cains Creek was at the bottom of Charles-street, where formerly the Salmon and Ball, but now the River View Hotel, stands. It was an artificial creek, dug out to allow the ship Cairns, wrecked in Whirlpool Reach, to be brought up and secured ; she was then roofed over, like a veritable Noah’s Ark, and was for some time used as a bonding store.
The Tasmanian, 14 May 1892
An interesting feature was the bonded warehouse situated at the foot of Charles Street, where the River View Hotel stands today. Actually that warehouse comprised the barque Kaines, which was wrecked at Whirlpool Reach and afterwards condemned.It was procured by a Launceston syndicate and floated through a canal to the block of land mentioned. A roof was put over it and a doorway cut in the side, it then being used for the warehouse.
The Mercury, 5 April 1935