Victoria Hotel fire: Geraldton residents say the 159-year-old pub was the best place to live and work

The Victoria Hotel may now just be a pile of rubble, but Geraldton residents say a wrecking ball cannot touch the memories and friendships made while living and working at the landmark venue. The City of Greater Geraldton last week issued an order to the administrators of Geraldton Investments Pty Ltd to demolish the building, which was recently gutted by fire. This is not the first time the Victoria Hotel has faced demolition, with problems associated with the raising of Marine Terrace in 1907 resulting in a portion of the hotel being rebuilt. The hotel started its life in 1862 as a single-storey building managed by inaugural Geraldton mayor George Baston. By the time of his death in 1894, the Victoria Hotel was a thriving two-storey establishment which featured three private sitting rooms, 22 bedrooms, a large dining room, billiard room, public bar, private saloon bar, two bathrooms and large stables at the rear. The pub changed hands several times over the years, with Len Shepheard operating the business during what Geraldton history buff Stan Gratte describes as the Victoria Hotel’s glory days. “I think it probably came into its heyday through the war years (during WWII),” he said. “We had 40,000 troops in the district and they were given leave on the weekend, so there was a lot of money made at the hotel at that time. “Mr Shepheard made enough money to sell (the Victoria Hotel) and then he shifted (when he purchased the Club Hotel).” While he is not one to enjoy a pint at the pub himself, Mr Gratte said the Victoria Hotel was always a favourite with locals and tourists. “It was probably the centre of Geraldton in its early days,” he said. “It has always been a very popular hotel for Geraldton people.” Harry McGregor and his wife Marjorie ran the hotel between the 1950s and 1980s, with daughter Jan Osment saying her father was a stickler for quality when it came to hotel service. “He was very picky, everything had to be just right,” she said. “During the time he was there, the best hotels in town were the Vic and Shepheard’s.” Ms Osment said her father previously worked as a bookkeeper and decided to change careers when World War II ended. “Father got home from the war and decided he was going to have some fun, I think,” she said. “They moved to Geraldton in 1949 ... they made a lot of good friends up there and they really loved Geraldton.” Now based in Perth, Ms Osment said she has fond memories of living at the hotel as a child with her parents and brother Ian. “I remember when we first moved in Ian and I used to sleep out under the veranda sometimes,” she said. “When we grew older and when they had to shift the veranda, we ended up moving into one of the rooms upstairs.” Despite being a publican’s daughter, Ms Osment said she never worked behind the bar. “Funnily enough, I have never even poured a glass of beer,” she said. “I used to help mother more than father, getting things ready for guests and things like that. “I loved it ... it was good fun.” Ms Osment frequently returned to Geraldton after she moved to Fremantle, with her daughter Erika Osment saying she remembered spending much of her school holidays at the Victoria Hotel. “We were ratbags and we used to rollerskate and skateboard up and down the halls,” she said. “It would have sounded like thunder on the wooden floorboards to the people downstairs.” Ms Osment said meals at the hotel were a formal affair, with Mr McGregor spending more than an hour on his appearance before dinner. “(Mr and Mrs McGregor) would do their morning shift, then they would go to lunch and have an afternoon nap and then Harry would spend an hour and a half getting dressed for the evening,” she said. “He would trim his moustache, do his nails, all while standing in the bathroom smoking. He would walk downstairs in a suit with a cravat looking impeccable, there would not be a hair out of place.” Kathy Millward was a waitress at the hotel about 50 years ago and said Mr McGregor made working at the Victoria Hotel a delight. “He was such a beautiful man ... he was one of life’s true gentlemen,” she said. Cleaning the silverware, making beds and serving guests were among Ms Millward’s many daily duties, for which she was paid about $10 each week. Wages were collected from Mr McGregor’s office every Monday morning, with Ms Millward saying her boss sometimes slipped an extra dollar or two into the envelope. Ros Worthington worked alongside Ms Millward from the age of 14 until she moved to New Zealand around her 19th birthday. Ms Worthington said working at the hotel equipped her with many skills. “I learnt everything from housemaid to waitressing, then I was still underage at 17. I begged and would sneak out into the bottle shop and Mr Mac would be back there and I would be serving in the bottle shop,” she said. “On Friday night there would be the candlelit room, which was very popular, and I was the cook. “Steak Diane was the plate of the day in those days.” Ms Worthington said the hotel was always busy, with guests coming from all over the world when the wildflowers were in full bloom across Geraldton. “We had some wonderful people stay and we would be very busy in September with the Americans coming over for the wildflower season,” she said. Affectionately called Twiggy by the McGregors, Ms Worthington considered the publicans to be family and even got married on the steps of the hotel. Ms Worthington said her heart broke when she heard about the fire that destroyed her old workplace. “My brother rang me and told me and I actually burst into tears,” she said. “Even when I talk about it now I get emotional because it was such a beautiful and big part of my life. “A little bit of my heart broke.” The Victoria Hotel became known as Blue Heelers Tavern after the McGregor family retired. The building took its last breath on Saturday before being demolished.