Canberra Hotel

The Canberra Hotel in Warra was built in 1913 by Thomas Charles Greaves. Thomas Greaves was an early settler in the Warra district, who also built the first Warra Bakery. The first Licensee of the hotel was his wife, Lillias Helena Greaves. In 1921, the license was transferred to Miriam McCormack, a past licensee of the Royal Hotel, Warra.

The hotel was described as having a good appearance and caught the eye of anyone entering the town for the first time, as it had a long frontage to two streets.

The Canberra Hotel was totally destroyed by fire on 28 January 1931. The first to notice the fire at 10.45pm were Mr. D. G. Arnold (Chairman of Wambo Shire Council) and Mr. Len Symes, who saw flames in the corridor near the offices of Mr. Kenneth Lang, auctioneer.

The then licensee, Mr. Ernest Kerrison Harvey, rushed to the bar and recovered some money from the till, but was unable to open the hotel safe. Apart from the money from the till, and some ladies' belongings, nothing else was saved.

The heat from the blaze was so great that no one could approach the building, and a telephone pole in front of the hotel caught alight. A band of helpers was kept busy until sunrise clearing the telephone wires as they fell.

The fierceness of the blaze could be gauged from the fact that the building was totally demolished in 25 minutes.

The owner of the hotel at the time of the fire was Mrs. Lillias Helena Greaves, the widow of Thomas Greaves, & the damage was estimated to be £3500. Thomas Greaves had died in Victoria on 19 July 1923, at the age of 62 Years.

In September 1931, Mrs. Greaves applied to have the license for the Canberra Hotel transferred back to her from Ernest Harvey. At the time she stated that she was a widow with six children, & had previously held the license for the Canberra Hotel for a periood of eight years.