Darling Range Tavern

Statement of Significance

The Darling Range Hotel (1903) illustrates the development of Bellevue at the turn of the twentieth century, which resulted from the 1890s gold rush, the associated growth in the brickmaking industry, along with the opening of the Midland Railway Workshops, nearby abattoirs and marshalling yards, and the Helena Vale Racecourse.
The Hotel was the closest pub to the nearby Blackboy Hill military camp and has strong demonstrable associations with those ANZACS who trained at the camp. It stands as a tangible remnant of the spirit of the ANZACS in the locality.
The Hotel was once an important social venue for the people of Bellevue, Helena Vale Racecourse racegoers, and the travelling public.
The Hotel contributes to the local community’s sense of place, despite the loss of its original verandah and tower, as a local landmark and remnant of the area’s early development and history.
The Moreton Bay fig tree (Ficus macrophylla) is associated with the original stables for the 1903 hotel. The 1955 extension is of little significance.

The hotel was designed by the architect EE Giles who designed several hotels in the area.

The Hotel was the closest pub to the nearby Blackboy Hill military camp and has strong demonstrable associations with those ANZACS who trained at the camp. It stands as a tangible remnant of the spirit of the ANZACS in the locality.

The Hotel was once an important social venue for the people of Bellevue, Helena Vale Racecourse racegoers, and the travelling public.

The Hotel contributes to the local community’s sense of place, despite the loss of its original verandah and tower, as a local landmark and remnant of the area’s early development and history.

The Moreton Bay fig tree (Ficus macrophylla) is associated with the original stables for the 1903 hotel. The 1955 extension and the 1980s addition are of little significance.

Physical Description

External – The 1903 Darling Range Hotel has a u-shaped plan with a chamfered corner. It is a brick masonry building constructed in English Bond brickwork with a turned gable tiled roof, tall brick chimneys and timber-framed casement windows. A metal box awning affixed to the building with stays replaces the original two-storey timber verandah. The building’s original tuck-pointed brick masonry has been painted numerous times and the stucco banding indicative of Federation era architecture has been coated with a textured finish and painted to match adjacent masonry. Air conditioning units are mounted on angle brackets affixed to the western elevation. Two stained glass transoms over the ground floor windows, on the northern elevation, have been compromised by air conditioning units. The original 1903 panelled timber door remains in-situ on the western elevation, as does the northern entry door. The corner entry door is boarded over. Stained glass transoms lights remain evident.

The building has been painted over numerous times and shows evidence of lack of maintenance and rising damp is noted around the majority of the footings.

The 1955 extension is also brick masonry with fibreboard panelling and mix of steel framed and timber framed windows. There is a recessed entry porch leading to double door on the ground floor that abuts the southern termination of the original 1903 hotel. There is an external steel stair to the rear that leads up to the first floor and some infill construction and cantilevered timber structure conjoining the western and eastern wings. The 1980s addition comprises light coloured face brick and a tiled hood to its parapet.
Internally - the ground floor of the building, which is the original dining room and bar area of the 1903 Darling Ranges Hotel, is primarily used as an Indian restaurant (2017). The ground floor has seen numerous changes to the layout and most of the partition walls have had openings widened and original ceilings removed. The ceilings are now clad with acoustic panels and simple coving instead of the more ornate plaster cornices expected of a federation-era hotel. Stained glass window transoms, timber floor boards and wall vents do remain in situ but are the last vestige of the original decorative finishes.

The original stair has been removed and the void in filled to form a living/dining area on the first floor. The internal detailing on the upper floor is simple in nature and comprises timber floorboards, plaster walls, lath and plaster arches and ceilings with some localised evidence of water ingress.
The 1955 extension has a timber parquet floor at first floor level and is compartmentalised into a series of rooms on either side of a central corridor. The ground floor is an open plan space with no original finishes and is vacant (2017). The 1980 addition is of no significance.

Two storey building on a corner plot facing Great Eastern Highway and Horace Street. The building has experienced various construction phases but presents to the street frontage as a coherent built form.
The place is of brick construction which has been painted obscuring the original tuckpoint finish. As a corner building there are two principal facades joined by a chamfered corner incorporating a timber panelled door facing the intersection. Windows are predominantly sashes creating a regular rhythm around the building at upper level and interposed with doors at ground level. A box awning extends around the two main elevations which is a non-original feature.
The roof is hipped and tiled with battened eaves. The deeper eaves at the at the southern end of the range on the Horace Street frontage indicate different building phases with this section being constructed in the 1950s and the original section in 1903.

History

The brickmaking industry was a key catalyst for the growth of Bellevue area at the turn of the twentieth century, along with the opening of the Midland Railway Workshops (1904) and nearby abattoirs and marshalling yards. In 1896/7 the Helena Vale Race Club opened, in an area north of Great Eastern highway and what is now known as Rothschild Place. The racecourse was serviced by a branch line and further spurred development in the area.

The subject hotel, then known as the East Midland Hotel, was built along the southern side of the Great Eastern Highway opposite the racecourse. It was built by Mr Thomas Wilkins, who became Chairman of the Greenmount Roads Board, Darling Range Road Board and Midland Junction Road Board. Mr Wilkins, who had owned the nearby Bellevue Hotel, saw the benefits of a new hotel venue closer to the racetrack. Construction commenced in 1903, however due to complications with obtaining a Liquor Licence the place was not opened with a full licence until 1905.
An image circa 1905, shows that the hotel had an imposing tower and a two-storey verandah decorated with iron lacework. A report in the Swan Express from 1921 sets out that the Hotel consisted of ’12 bedrooms (three occupied by licensee and staff) sitting rooms upstairs, commercial and billiard rooms, large dining room, bar parlour etc. This Hotel is beautiful furnished and equal to any first class Hotel in Perth.’ It was popular in its early days with people involved in racing and other sports, and provided loose boxes for hire. From the side balcony the whole of the Helena Racecourse could be seen, along with Greenmount Hill and the Darling Ranges. The hotel developed a quoits ground and hosted regular tournaments. The place also had an orchard.

The hotel had struggled financially and Wilkins sold it in 1914 to Mr W Lanazed. The name was changed to the Darling Range Hotel in July 1914. It continued to struggle until the establishment of the military training camp at nearby Blackboy Hill in August 1914.

There is considerable primary evidence to suggest that the Hotel was the pub of choice for the trainee ANZAC’s at nearby Blackboy Hill training camp. In 1914 the pub was advertised in the Sunday Times newspaper as being the nearest pub to the Blackboy Hill camp. In 1915 the Camp Chronicle newspaper, prepared for the trainee soldiers at Blackboy Hill, reported that the owner, Mr Bung Lanzed was ‘making a fortune from the soldiers’. Such was the popularity that two military policemen were at one stage in 1916 posted to the pub to discourage trainee soldiers from visiting when not permitted. Newspaper articles from the 1914-1918 period regularly feature the Hotel’s usage and by 1917 it was advertised as ‘The Soldiers Rest - nearest pub to the camp’. It can be said that the period from 1914-1918 was the peak of the Hotel’s popularity.

In May 1950, a contractor’s truck collided with the northern portion of the verandah destroying it beyond repair. In March 1955, a fire destroyed most of the hotel’s upper storey with damage estimated to be more than £20,000.

Integrity/Authenticity

Authenticity: Moderate to high
Integrity: High as the place continues to be used as a hotel.

Condition

Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in good condition.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.