Introduction
Alpha and Jericho are two small towns in central western Queensland located either side of the Great Dividing Range. They were established as terminuses as a railway line was constructed westwards from Rockhampton during the 1880s. The towns developed as rural centres for an extensive rural area. European pastoral settlement preceded the arrival of the towns when large blocks of land were licensed to raise cattle and sheep from the 1860s.
The Jericho Shire Council was the local authority governing the area of 22 888 km2 from 1916 to 2008, since when the area has become part of the Barcaldine Regional Council.
Approach to the Study
The people of the area who have featured in its history are central to this study covering the first 100 years of European settlement – 1863 to 1962. It will be a starting point for follow-up on-line searching for more details about the people or the history of the area.
With data sets under various topics, it will become a home for the many names revealed through my researching the history of the area, published as Crossing the Divide, Barcaldine Regional Council, 2013.
Copyright © Janice Cooper 2016-2017
Site up dated June 2020
Hi. Was wondering if you can point me to a source for the name change of the Railway Hotel, Jericho to Jordan Valley Hotel. My aunty and uncle Beryl and Frank O’Reilly were owners with Beryl the licensee from my research from 1955 to 1981. I have seen redevelopment plans from 1963 and still known then as the Railway Hotel. Real estate photos online (undated) have the Jordan Valley Hotel looking very much the same as on these plans.
Hello Bruce
Apologies for the delay in responding to your query on the Alpha-Jericho website.
I have checked through my research notes and references to see if I can answer your question, but with limited success.
The notes I extracted from the Jericho Shire Council (1916-2008) Minutes do not include any reference to the change of name.
The earliest reference to the Jordan Valley Hotel in the extracts from newspapers I hold is from Central Queensland News, 16 April 1982: ‘ Art and Craft Show held at Jericho’s Jordan Valley Hotel on 12 April’.
The Central Queensland News, then based in Emerald has not been digitised – microfilmed copies are at the State Library of Queensland. The other local newspaper The Longreach Leader may also have printed a story about the name change for the Hotel, the Railway Hotel, in several buildings, from 1885. Recent years of The Longreach Leader have also been microfilmed.
Do the sources you have found for the licensees give details such as Name of hotel, as they did in earlier years? Perhaps that is the best source to provide a date during the years after 1981.
It may be worth contacting the Barcaldine Regional Council, as the last I heard, the Jericho Shire Council Minutes were still held in its Alpha Council office. With the date you are now aware of there would not be many minutes to search, ie. 1981-1982.
Best wishes in tracking the information down.
Janice Cooper
author: Crossing the divide. A history of the Alpha and Jericho districts, Barcaldine Regional Council, 2013.