The Victoria Hotel, or The Vic as it is commonly known, is a heritage

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...

 listed pub

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 located in Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

, Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Built in 1890, it is an important historical building and tourist attraction

Tourist attraction

A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....

 of inner Darwin.

History

Ellen Ryan was one of the Territory’s wealthiest women, owning land and several mining leases in the Northern Territory. In 1888, Ryan moved into the Territory hotel trade, lodging an application with the licensing board for a prestigious two story hotel to be built in Smith Street. Ryan went on to become a pioneer publican in the Territory.

Located at 27 Smith Street Mall in Darwin, the Victoria Hotel was built for the northern Australia gold rushes

Australian gold rushes

The Australian gold rush started in 1851 when prospector Edward Hammond Hargraves claimed the discovery of payable gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, at a site Edward Hargraves called Ophir.Eight months later, gold was found in Victoria...

 of the 1870s, and was completed on 8 September 1890. The Victoria Hotel is a two story building of local and multi-coloured porcellanite

Porcellanite

Porcellanite or porcelanite, is a hard, dense rock somewhat similar in appearance to unglazed porcelain. It is often an impure variety of chert containing clay and calcareous matter....

 stone, with a facade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 dominated by a parapetted gable and verandah

Verandah

A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...

s.

Constructed by H.C. Debross, it was built for a reported cost of £4,000 pounds and was the first stone building in Darwin. Following its completion in 1890, the building dominated Smith Street and remained that way for over half a century.

Originally called the North Australia Hotel, the pub's name was changed to the Victoria Hotel in 1896 and is charactisied by its colonial-style architecture and construction.

1897 cyclone

The hotel lost part of its roof and was damaged internally during a cyclone

Cyclone

In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...

 on 6 January 1897. Known as the "Great Hurricane", it killed 28 people, sunk 19 vessels in the harbour including the entire pearling fleet and caused around £150,000 damage throughout the town. Structurally however, the hotel was one of only a few buildings that remained intact and it was repaired shortly afterwards.

Early 20th century

In 1908, the hotel accommodated Henry Dutton and Murray Aunger, the first motorists to cross the Australian continent from south to north.

In 1915, the hotel was one of several to be nationalised by Northern Territory Administrator

Administrator of the Northern Territory

The Administrator of the Northern Territory is an official appointed by the Governor-General of Australia to exercise powers analogous to that of a state governor...

, John Gilruth

John A. Gilruth

John Anderson Gilruth was a veterinary scientist and administrator. He is particularly noted for being Administrator of the Northern Territory from 1912 to 1918, when he was recalled after an angry mob demanded that he resign...

. Known as the government take-over, the hotel was the vocal point for political turmoil and union unrest between 1911 and 1919 in what was known as the Darwin Rebellion

Darwin Rebellion

The Darwin Rebellion of 17 December 1918 was the culmination of unrest in the Australian Workers' Union which had grown between 1911 and 1919. Led by Harold Nelson, some 1000 demonstrators marched on Government House at Liberty Square in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia where they burnt an...

.

Darwin Rebellion

Ross

Ross Macpherson Smith

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE, MC & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC was an Australian aviator, who, along with his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, became the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, ....

 and Keith Smith

Keith Macpherson Smith

Sir Keith Macpherson Smith KBE, was an Australian aviator, who, along with his brother, Sir Ross Macpherson Smith and two other men, became the first people to fly from England to Australia....

 and other aviators connected with the air race from England to Australia

England to Australia flight

In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia. Of the six entries that started the race, the winners were two brothers and their two crew in a Vickers Vimy....

 stayed here in December 1919. In the 1920s and 1930s, the connection with aviator

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

s was maintained as many of them have signed their names on a masonry section that has been preserved. The connection to aviators was mainly due to Chrsitina Gordon, who took over the hotel in the early 1920s. Gordon turned the Vic into a first class hotel where formality prevailed, including the wearing of coats in the dining room.

The well-known Government architect, B.C.G. Burnett, who had a very significant influence on Darwin architecture from the late 1930s, stayed at the hotel for several years.

1937 cyclone

The hotel lost its roof for the second time in March 1937, during another cyclone. Although not as formidable as the 1897 cyclone, it still caused considerable damage to the town and killed one person. The hotel was quickly repaired.

World War II

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the hotel was occupied by United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Australian naval authorities who remained there until the end of the war. However, in September 1941, rioting soldiers in the Darwin city area caused superficial damage to the hotel such as broken windows and furniture. With many troops stationed in Darwin, a fight broke out in the hotel that quickly spread outside into Smith Street. Although the damage was blamed on the soldiers, records show that civilians were involved in the riot.

On 19 February 1942, Darwin was bombed by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese air raids, the largest attacks mounted by a foreign power against Australia. It was the same fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

, though a considerably larger number of bombs were dropped on Darwin, than on Pearl Harbor. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage to the town. They were the first of many raids on Darwin. Despite this extensive destruction to the town, the Victoria Hotel survived with little damage. Ironically, just as much damaged was caused to the hotel by the September 1941 soldiers riot, as the Japanese bombing raids.

In September 1946 the pub reopened under the ownership of the Lim family, who bought the hotel from the Gordons. The Lim's operated the hotel for nearly 20 years, selling it in 1965. During this period, the hotel was a popular 'watering hole' frequently attended by crocodile shooters, buffalo hunters and mining prospectors, as well as the local office workers and bank staff.

Cyclone Tracy

On Christmas Day 1974, the hotel survived another direct hit by Cyclone Tracy

Cyclone Tracy

Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1974...

 which took 71 lives, destroyed or severely damaged 95% of Darwin dwellings, causing damage estimated at the time of over $800 million. The hotel was significantly damaged, but survived structurally, losing its roof for the third time in less than 100 years.

The cyclone left Darwin nearly uninhabitable, so it was not until 1978 when reconstruction of the hotel occurred, as housing took priority. Some original stonework was repaired at this time, particularly in relation to the Smith Street gabled parapet. Other stonework repairs were minimal as it was still in generally good condition, despite the severity of Cyclone Tracy.

The hotel has had several refurbishments since Cyclone Tracy.

Present day

Today, the Vic Hotel is a popular tavern and nightclub. The hotel complex includes surrounding retails shops and offices accessed via Smith Street Mall and the Vic arcade. The Vic is popular with backpacker

Backpacking (travel)

Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used...

s, and regularly hosts live bands. Those interested in history should check out the old cellar near the entrance. It shows how the pub originally operated.

In 1999, the hotel facade was registered on the National Estate

Protected areas of Australia

Protected areas of Australia include Commonwealth and off-shore protected areas managed by the Australian government, as well as protected areas within each of the six states of Australia and two self-governing territories , which are managed by the eight state and territory...

as a Historic site (place ID: 19127), for its historic associations with important events and individuals for more than a century.