The historic Barrier Reef Hotel in Cairns has resumed the game, under new owners, returning a near-full-time watering hole to the capital of FNQ.
Established back in 1898 as the Empire Hotel, the current two storey hotel was built in 1926. The waterfront property occupies 530sqm on Wharf St, where thousands of passengers disembark from cruise ships every year.
It is the last of seven pubs that used to be on the strip and the last remnant of a time of hard-drinking wharfies, to whom it catered until the 1980s. In its heyday the hotel was open 24 hours a day, to facilitate the shift workers that would arrive at all times, after their shifts loading sugar.
In 1997 the pub was added to the Queensland Heritage Register, and it has come to welcome upmarket neighbours such as the Reef Hotel Casino, a Hilton hotel, Hemingway’s Brewery, and accommodation towers.
Dennis and Donna Maher bought the Barrier Reef Hotel in 2016. The husband and wife team operated it until 2022 before deciding to list the property, looking for $4.7 million.
It offered a large front public bar, lounge bar, and gaming with 15 (coastal) entitlements, and TAB and KENO. Although its licence allowed 10am-midnight trading every day, the operation was open only five days, typically from midday to 9pm.
Marketing literature spoke of an opportunity to “stamp an individual mark on a landmark Cairns building”. The biggest upside in the partially renovated structure was suggested to be the unused rooms on the upper level that had been shut for years, which enjoy verandas and views of the Cairns Inlet.
Unable to secure a buyer in the post-COVID rising interest rates landscape, trading slipped further until the hotel was typically only open one weekend a month, for private functions.
But the Mahers held on and eventually sold to new private owners, and in the past week the near-century-old local has reopened under new management, boasting a swag of memorabilia and hosting an official ‘open to the public’ soiree last weekend.
New venue manager Stephen Boyd confirms they are back to operating six days a week, Tuesday to Sunday, and claims they are pouring the largest range of Coopers beers in the state.
The locals were reportedly so eager for its return there were people waiting outside on Friday, eagerly anticipating the doors reopening at midday.
Until such time as the kitchen and restaurant become operational again, management has engaged food trucks Friday to Sunday, to cover foodservice, which gives people a reason to stay longer.
Boyd says they are keeping a strong focus on FNQ-based products, including food and spirits.
“We’re a locals pub, all our staff are locals … we do local live music, so it’s good.”
