Remembering Townsville's Great Northern Hotel
The part of the Great Northern Hotel I remember best is the footpath beneath its verandahs.
On Friday, 11 September 2026, fire devastated the heritage-listed pub on the corner of Flinders Street and Blackwood Street in Townsville’s CBD. Seeing the photographs brought back a very ordinary part of my life: the walk from the car park to work, and back again at the end of the day. ABC News reported that the hotel had been destroyed.
September 11 is already a day of remembrance for many people around the world because of the 2001 attacks. Here in Townsville, today’s news also brought a loss much closer to home.
As I write on the evening of 11 September, I have seen no reports of loss of life. The ABC did report that one firefighter was taken to hospital with a minor injury. My thoughts are with them, the crews who responded, the owners and the neighbouring businesses affected.
The pub on my walk to work
During my previous role with the Queensland Department of Education, I would regularly park at the Aplin Street Carpark and walk into the city.
That route took me through the walkway at the historic Townsville railway station, across at the Blackwood Street lights and past the Great Northern Hotel. Some mornings included a stop at HeyDays for a coffee before heading into work.
Do that walk enough times and you get to know a building without really setting out to. You recognise the corner, the columns and the stretch of footpath beneath the verandah. It becomes part of the morning routine, as familiar as the crossing or the coffee stop.
The Great Northern wasn’t a pub around which my social life revolved. My memories of it are smaller than that, but they have stayed with me.
On the afternoon walk back to the car, it offered welcome shade from the Townsville sun. In the summer months, it gave me shelter from the drizzle and those much heavier downpours that can make even a short walk feel a long way.
Even with its doors closed, the old pub still did something useful for the people walking past it. I was one of them.
That is what makes today’s photographs difficult to look at. A place can become part of your life through years of passing by, without ever being somewhere you planned to spend much time.
More than a familiar corner
The hotel’s history reaches much further back than my commute.
The Queensland Heritage Register’s history of the Great Northern Hotel dates its construction to 1900–1901, for timber merchants Wilson Hart & Company, with a design by Townsville architects Tunbridge & Tunbridge. The ABC records its heritage listing in 1992.
Its location beside the railway was central to its purpose. Townsville City Council’s Civic Pride heritage trail describes the hotel as an early stop for people arriving by train, and includes the Great Northern, the old railway station and the Newmarket Hotel as neighbouring points on the walk.
There is a small discrepancy in the historical dates: Council’s trail brochure and the plaque pictured below say 1902, while the heritage history gives 1900–1901. Either way, this corner had been part of Townsville for well over a century.
Many locals will remember it as a working pub. In the ABC’s coverage, Mayor Nick Dametto recalled beer served from a wooden keg and a front bar that brought together people from different walks of life. He also spoke of its association with soldiers saying goodbye before going to war.
Others, like me, knew it mainly from the outside. Those everyday memories belong in the story too.
The hope of seeing it come back
I wasn’t sure exactly when the Great Northern had stopped trading. The ABC reports that it had been closed since a fire in 2015.
In the years that followed, it was easy to hope that the building might eventually get another chance, especially looking across the road at the Newmarket Hotel.
In May 2019, News Corp reported that the Newmarket had reopened its accommodation following substantial renovations. Nearly $1 million had reportedly been spent at that stage. The article was specifically about the guest rooms reopening; the pub section remained closed at the time.
That work offered a visible reason to imagine a future for the Great Northern as well. I hoped it might one day receive the refurbishment that would bring people back through its doors. Seeing another old hotel being renewed nearby made that feel possible.
It is sad to think that the Great Northern never reached that next chapter before today’s fire.
Photographs of the Great Northern before the fire
These photographs show the building and the details that made walking past it memorable: the ironwork, the old signs, the leadlight windows and the doors beneath those broad verandahs.
Select a thumbnail or use the previous and next buttons to browse. Select the large photograph to open it at full size.
The fire on 11 September 2026
The ABC reported that crews were called at 6:14 am and worked for roughly four hours to bring the blaze under control. The roof and both floors collapsed. Inspector Damien Phillips described the building as “definitely not salvageable”. Firefighters also saved a neighbouring cafe, which suffered minor damage.
Queensland Police declared an emergency exclusion zone at 8:40 am. Their subsequent update revoked that declaration, while confirming that traffic controls remained because of concerns about the building’s stability. Police said investigations into the cause were continuing. Anyone travelling through the area should follow current emergency-service directions.
Photograph: Queensland Fire Department, shared in its Facebook update on 11 September 2026 and reproduced in the ABC’s coverage.
Earlier in the day, Nick Dametto shared an update on Facebook while crews were still fighting the fire:
Fire crews are still battling the blaze at the Great Northern Hotel in Flinders Street with a large amount of smoke and flames evident.
Please stay clear of the area, listen to emergency services and take precautions to avoid the smoke.
Video credit: Joel Hutchison
Nick Dametto’s earlier update, 11 September 2026. The emergency declaration was subsequently revoked, as noted above.
What I will remember
Townsville will have plenty of stories about the Great Northern. Some will be about a drink at the bar, a stay upstairs, a family connection or a night that somebody still talks about years later.
Mine is about walking to work. About crossing from the old railway station, picking up a morning coffee and finding a little relief from the afternoon sun or the summer rain on the way back.
I think plenty of people will recognise that kind of attachment. We get used to the buildings around us. We expect them to be there the next time we turn the corner.
If you have a memory of the Great Northern Hotel, I would love to hear it. You can get in touch with me, or share your story alongside this article. The people who drank there, worked there, stayed there or simply walked past all have something worth remembering.
For me, it will always be the old pub that gave me shade on the walk back to the car.