Exchange Hotel, Mossman, Heritage hotel in Mossman, Australia.
The Exchange Hotel is a two-storey timber hotel at the corner of Front and Mill streets in Mossman, designed by Vibert McKirdy Brown and built in 1934–35. It replaced an earlier Exchange Hotel on the same site and was also known as the Daintree Inn.
The first Exchange Hotel, built around 1896 for Teresa O'Brien, was badly damaged in a March 1934 cyclone. Its timber replacement was designed by Vibert McKirdy Brown and built in 1934–35 to appeal to tourists drawn north after the Cook Highway opened in 1933. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 November 2012.
The hotel's name comes from its role as a commercial exchange in a sugar town: the first Exchange Hotel was run by Teresa O'Brien, wife of cane supplier Denis O'Brien, and listed under her name in the 1897 Pugh's Almanac. Licensees between 1914 and 1932 included members of the O'Brien family, among them E.J. O'Brien and Teresa Nugent (née O'Brien). The 1934–35 rebuilding was aimed at tourists drawn by the Cook Highway, opened in 1933.
The hotel stands at the corner of Front and Mill streets, a short walk from the Mossman Central Mill, whose first crush was in 1897 and which gave Mill Street its name. The building is a two-storey timber structure; the upper floor dates from the 1934–35 rebuild after the March 1934 cyclone. Mossman lies about 75 km north of Cairns, inland from Port Douglas.
The first Exchange Hotel on this corner was built for Teresa O'Brien around 1896; she is listed as running it in the 1897 Pugh's Almanac. Her husband Denis O'Brien, a sugar grower and director of the Mossman Central Mill, died at his property "Finlayvale" in 1905, the year their son-in-law Daniel J Kirwan became licensee.
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