White Bay Hotel

The White Bay Hotel was a pub that operated between 1860 and 1992. The land has been acquired by the New South Wales Government after being destroyed by fire and demolished.

White Bay Hotel
White Bay Hotel in January 2008
General information
Status	Closed; destroyed by fire; demolished
Address	Victoria Road, Rozelle, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Coordinates	33°52′05″S 151°10′35″E
Opened	1860
Relocated	1915
Closed	1992
Destroyed	5 September 2008 (2008-09-05)

History

The hotel was established in 1860 on the corner of the Crescent and Weston Streets in Rozelle, an inner-west suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Serving the workers of the Glebe Island abattoirs and soap factories, it was relocated in 1915 to make way for the White Bay goods railway.^[1]

Rebuilt as a brick structure on what is now Victoria Road and popular with the workers at the White Bay Power Station until its 1983 closure, and White Bay Container Terminal until the transfer of its facilities to Port Botany, the hotel, which became increasingly squeezed by the widening of Victoria Road after the construction of the Anzac Bridge, ceased trading in 1992.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Between this time and 2008, squatters had moved in and were particularly prominent during the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In June 2008, the owner of the hotel lodged an application to redevelop the building.^[2] On 5 September 2008, the hotel was destroyed by a devastating fire and later demolished.^[3][4] Police initially believed the cause of the fire was suspicious, however investigation found there were no grounds to lay arson charges.^[5] The New South Wales Government purchased the site in June 2010 for $2.5 million.^[6]

The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority cleared the White Bay Hotel site of building rubble.^[7] The site is now covered by an access road to the Anzac Bridge.

References

1. Davidson, B; Hamey, K; Nicholls, D (1991). Called To The Bar - 150 Years of pubs in Balmain & Rozelle. The Balmain Association. ISBN 0-9599502-6-5.
2. Creagh, Sunanda (2 June 2008). "Beer may flow once again at White Bay Hotel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
3. Gilmore, Heath (7 September 2008). "Last drinks at Rozelle's historic White Bay Hotel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
4. "Pub owner James Manning quizzed over blaze The White Bay Hotel". The Daily Telegraph. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
5. Mahar, Jessica (19 May 2010). "Hammer poised to fall on White Bay site". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
6. Tovey, Josephine (1 July 2010). "State snaps up White Bay Hotel site". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
7. White Bay Shared Path