WALLS COULD TALK
It was one of the big live music venues around Townsville in the 1980s and bands often stayed there after a gig.
The Seaview remains one of Townsville’s most popular venues and is undergoing a major redevelopment, and recently christened its new drive-through.
“The beer garden is still under construction; there’s going to be a complete change in how it looks,” hotel manager Catrina Schell said.
“Where the pool tables were, that’s going to be elevated and will become a nice sitdown area.
“The pool tables will move to the back, where the big screen is.
“There’s going to be covering over the back for people to be able to sit down and still enjoy it, even when the weather changes.”
Another Townsville that seems to have been here forever, the Great Northern Hotel, was built in 1900-01 and may have been initiated after plans were unveiled to build a Townsville railway station on land beside Ross Creek off Blackwood St.
Designed by the Turnbridge brothers, Walter Howard and Oliver Allan, the Great Northern Hotel proved a hit with travellers even though the railway station wasn’t finished until 1914.
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The Great Northern Hotel is a substantial two-storeyed, L-shaped brick building with facades to Flinders and Blackwood streets. Even though it was popular with local patrons for much of the 20th century, the Great Northern Hotel has been sadly void of pub chatter in recent years.
Damaged by fire in 2015, a continuing dispute between its owner and insurers has left it languishing, unable to open.
Locals are still hoping the much-loved hotel will one day reopen its doors.
The Great Northern Hotel was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992.
The building that everyone now knows as Perc Tucker Regional Gallery was built by the Union Bank of Australia in 1885.
Designed by ar architect F.D.G. St Stanley, the bu building was singl gle storey until a se second storey w was added in the ea early 1930s.
The Union B Bank eventually became the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, and the building was its regional headquarters until 1980, when Townsville City Council purchased the heritage building as a venue for Townsville’s first public art gallery.
The Queensland Government subsidised the purchase, but most of the funding for the foundation and operating costs of the gallery came from the Local Government Authority.
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery was opened by then Townsville mayor Mike Reynolds in 1981 and named after former mayor Perc Tucker.
The building was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992.
It’s one of the most striking buildings in the Townsville CBD and a popular place for after-work drinks on a Friday.
But the building that plays host to drinks and chatter was originally constructed to house a post office.
The post office was constructed in a number of stages.
The first stage was a twostorey telegraph office, and a clock tower was added in 1891.
The clock tower was actually taken down following the bombing of Darwin in 1942 and placed into storage, but a modified tower was installed in 1964.
The interior of the building was also upgraded around the same time, and many political rallies were around it because of its prominent CBD location.
In 2001, the post office building was redeveloped as The Brewery and it has become one of Townsville’s top drinking venues.
At the end of Flinders St East, Molly Malone’s looms large as an entertainment icon and is a favourite for visitors to Townsville.
The charming hotel began life as the Townsville Boarding House in 1865 and was a single-storey timber building, which was renamed Tattersalls in 1867.
In 1881 the original 1865 hotel was demolished and in its place was built a two-storey timber and corrugated iron structure. It featured exposed framing and lace brackets on the supporting posts of the veranda and roof.
In the 1930s, it was briefly renamed Ramages but reverted to Tattersalls until it was themed as an Irish bar and grill and renamed Molly Malone’s.
Tattersalls Hotel was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992.