Sleepwalking off balconies was once a serious problem. Photo: Photoleap.
These days many Riverina residents lament the removal of the classic Aussie verandahs and balconies that once lined the streets of our towns.
Wagga famously removed most of the ‘ugly’ colonial balconies before the Queen’s visit in 1954, but could there be another reason they were done away with?
Sleepwalking (or somnambulism) is not something we hear a lot about in the news these days but once upon a time, it seems to have been a serious issue that led to many a misadventure involving a hotel.
We know that in the 1920s, growing Riverina towns like Wagga began cracking down on structures that required support posts on the streets which were considered a hazard to the increasing numbers of cars.
It also appears to have drastically reduced the number of locals that somnambulated off hotel balconies with surprising frequency.
Here are just a few local incidents.
In Adelong in January 1915, a local horse trainer named Thomas Crowe found himself in a critical condition after attending a race meeting in Tumut.
He went to bed that night on the balcony of the Crown’s Hotel but was later found unconscious on the footpath six metres below after apparently climbing over the rail.
The poor bloke suffered a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a broken arm and internal injuries and, in a strange twist of fate, found himself in the same hospital as Reginald Barton, who had done exactly the same thing two days earlier.
In December of the same year, the well-known licensee of the Locomotive Hotel at Junee, Robert Miller, met his untimely end on the pavement outside his pub.
Poor Robert’s wife was sleeping beside him on the balcony and awoke just in time to see the 54-year-old disappear over the railing.
The coroner’s inquiry ruled that somnambulism had led to his death.
In October 1919, wool classer Wally Keinly rose from his bed on the balcony of the Riverina Hotel at Corowa, dressed himself and promptly stepped over the railing. Fellow guests found poor Wally with a cracked skull and surmised that in his sleep he had mistaken the balcony rail for a fence.
In 1929 William Cody was boarding at Wagga’s Federal Hotel when he rose from his bed in the middle of the night and walked out of a second-story window. He fell nine metres to the ground below, taking out a projecting glass window on the way. He was taken to hospital after being found unconscious with a busted head and a broken arm.
Just before Christmas in 1935 a railway clerk from Lithgow named Cohen was staying at The Rock when he strolled off a 7.5 metre balcony and broke his foot. Not wanting to disturb anyone, he limped back up the stairs to his room before fellow guests were awakened by his groans.
In 1938, a 26-year-old Royal Australian Air Force pilot named W. Leonard was seriously injured when he sleepwalked off the balcony of the Royal Hotel in Adelong.
In 1940, well-known Narromine Rugby player Bernard Pringle was on his way to Wagga to help build a hanger at the RAAF Flying School. During a stop over in Young, his sleeping body took him for a stroll off the verandah and on to hospital where he was treated for a fractured pelvis.
Finally, a story with a happy ending involving a lad from Young who had the police out looking for him late one night in February 1950.
Eleven-year-old Gavin Graham lived at the Great Eastern Hotel where his father was the licensee and called for help after the boy’s bed was found empty.
Police scoured the area before checking the other bedrooms in the hotel, where they discovered young Graham asleep in an unoccupied room.
The verdict was that he had somnambulated out of the room he shared with his father and onto the balcony where, thankfully, he did not climb the railing and instead strolled into the next room.
Phew! Perhaps we are better off without them after all!
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