This abandoned hotel was known as ‘Mrs. Stamp’s hotel’ and later ‘The Squatters Arms’. Photo: Michelle Maddison.
This week, the Museum of the Riverina team takes us to Wagga’s outskirts and the abandoned hotel at Cookardinia.
Many will recognise this building located just 58 km outside Wagga and pictured here in the first decade of the 21st century.
The Cookardinia run was situated on the main road between Albury and Wagga, near the junction of branch roads to Henty and Culcairn.
A gentleman called John Post took advantage of the position by building a roadside inn to provide accommodation and other amenities for travellers.
From the early 1860s the hotel at ‘Cookardinia’ was managed by Elizabeth Stamp.
The inn was often referred to as “Mrs Stamp’s hotel”.
In June 1866 Crown Prosecutor David Forbes and Judge Francis of the District Court spent an uncomfortable night at the inn at Cookardinia on their way from Wagga Wagga to Albury.
The two men were subjected to flea bites and “a sad deficiency of bed clothes” during the night.
As a result of the experience Edward Post (John Post’s eldest son) was summoned to appear before the Albury Police Court and charged under the Publicans’ Act with “not having proper accommodation” in the form of “two proper and well-supplied bedrooms” on the occasion of the visit by the “learned gentlemen”.
Post was fined 40 shillings and costs.
In 1868 a publican’s license was granted to Elizabeth Stamp for the “Squatters’ Arms Hotel” at Cookardinia and in 1869, John Post himself became the hotel’s licensee.
The hotel closed on 6 November 1931, with Leslie Post being the license holder.
An internal restoration was undertaken in 1976 for use in the film Mad Dog Morgan starring Dennis Hopper, David Gulpilil and Jack Thompson.
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