Riverina Rewind: How did the North Wagga Hotel come to be called the Palm and Pawn?

Wagga Wagga District Historical Society President Geoff Burch has been researching Riverina pubs since the 1980s and recently published “A History of Hotels at North Wagga Wagga” with plenty of great insights into a bygone era.

Would you believe that the number of hotels operating in North Wagga Wagga peaked in 1879 with a whopping eight hotels licensed in that year.

As Geoff explained, workers had flooded the region to complete the construction of the railway line from Bomen through to South Wagga, and the number of hotels declined as the work soon moved south towards Albury.

The very first licensed hotel in North Wagga Wagga was the Ferry Inn which began trading in 1849. 175 years later, only two remain.

Among the hotels that came and went were the Swan Hotel (aka the White Swan Hotel), the Railway Hotel, The Gang Forward Hotel and the Welcome Home.

The two that remain for those with a thirst north of the ‘bidgee are The Black Swan Hotel and the North Wagga Wagga Hotel (aka Palm & Pawn).

With the Swan Hotel already in business since 1851, the Black Swan’s licensee, Henry Moxham, adopted the native version of the species as its symbol and set up on Gardiner Street overlooking the river.

“The hotel was officially opened on Monday the 30th June 1861, when the ferry shuttled passengers from South Wagga Wagga, backwards and forwards over the river, throughout the day,” Geoff writes.

“Festivities included horse races and a “capital spread,” which was attributed to the “high bred” cook Moxham had hired.”

Over the years, the license changed hands regularly and the hotel was frequented by many notable citizens and rogues, including fraudster Tom Castro.

The future Tichbourne Claimant took a shine to employee Mary Ann O’Brien and later married her. Twice. Once at a boarding house in Wagga and a second time with a catholic ceremony in Goulburn.

The Palm and Pawn Hotel was originally licensed as the North Wagga Hotel and was the second establishment to use the name after another hotel on Gardiner Street closed some years earlier.

Blacksmith James Clarke traded the forge for the bar and his hotel soon became a popular meeting place for sporting bodies, the local progress association, political rallies, auctions, and other business and community events.

But how, when and why did become the Palm and Pawn?

An article from the Daily Advertiser in June 1953 explains that it was licensee J. Paten who applied for the name change that “followed the symbolic style of old English inn signs”.

The new motif was designed by Mr Paten and he proudly displayed his heraldry on a shield-shaped sign.

The top half featured a “palm tree with the sun’s rays zig-zagging behind it” to signify heat and four straight pines to signify seats as a representation of the shady beer garden with its towering date palms.

The lower half featured a chess pawn based on a piece of a 200-year-old chess set that Mr Paten owned. He said the pawn represented the “ordinary working man”.

Hence, The Palm and Pawn is a shady place to sit and escape the heat and is open to everyone.

He said the decision to rename the hotel was because he considered “most hotel names ‘too colourless,’ and with too little variety,” citing the fact that in NSW, “60 per cent of the hotels shared about 50 names”.

“Everywhere you go you will find the Courthouse, the Commercial, The Railway, The Royal and The Rest,” he said.

For more on the history of the Hotels of North Wagga, the Palm and Pawn and the Black Swan Hotel, check out Geoff’s articles.