With elements of art deco in its design , this Townsville oasis, the Newmarket Hotel , stood out , offering a wide range of services, including a piano man , conference facilities . Then strange things began to happen . A for sale sign went up ; it was announced it was to undergo refurbishment ; the exterior became increasingly bland (below ), and for a long time now there have been no discernible signs of activity. The piano man has certainly not been heard tickling the ivories inside .
Ring the hotel number and you are informed that it is no longer connected . A real estate site says the hotel is up for sale or lease . What gives ?
Just across the road is another pub mystery , the grand old Great Northern Hotel,below , shut down after an arson attack moons ago ,which brandished a drooping banner saying it would soon reopen. When , nobody knows. A nearby shopkeeper says the hotel is unlikely to open its doors because of numerous problems . Another banner advertises last year's season of the Little Shop of Horrors .
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The pub when the doors opened, beer flowed .
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And just across the road ,shamefully neglected by civic and military organisations in this garrison city, is the broken Victory in the Pacific Memorial Fountain , still containing rubbish , part of an old shoe , empty drink and food containers, sticks , stones , parts of the metal components missing , broken off when viewed by our S(h)ipping Reporter last Friday . The pieces of meat pie had vanished, probably eaten by appreciative birds . At the nearby dirty , graffiti daubed bus shelter, a beer can in the rafters, looked increasingly like a pissoir , a vespasienne , in a village square scene from Clochemerle, sayeth our seafront roundsman .
