Fiery tale to be delivered in Logan

This is a State Library of Queensland image of the Logan Village Hotel.
This State Library of Queensland image shows the rebuilt Logan Village Hotel in 1912.

The fascinating story behind a Logan institution will be shared during a live-streamed presentation this month by Logan City Council’s Local Heritage Specialist.

Hilda Maclean will tell the story of how Logan Village Hotel publican Charles Wiman awoke to discover his establishment on fire on a chilly September morning in 1904.

Charles thought he was listening to a hailstorm when he woke.

He soon realised the sound was crackling glass and the single-storey wooden building was on fire.

Charles tried to extinguish the flames with buckets of water but it was soon engulfed.

His wife Annie, their two children and the cook had escaped and raised the alarm with a gang of railway workers camped across the road at the station.

They raced in to try and salvage what they could as it became clear the 19-room hotel could not be saved.

Only the piano and some bundles of bedclothes were rescued.

Charles injured himself in the process when the burning ceiling fell in on him.

Within half an hour, the Logan Village Hotel burned to the ground.

The Wiman family lost everything as the contents were not insured.

The building’s owner William Drynan soon rebuilt the hotel in the form we can still see today in Albert St, Logan Village.

Dr Maclean will share the story as well as photos of the rebuilt hotel at the Pubs and Post Offices event from 10.30am on Wednesday, July 29.

Many people are unaware that in the earliest days of settlement in the Logan district a visit to the post office meant collecting your mail at the pub.

Dr Maclean will share the development of these two institutions through the lens of the travelling photographer William Boag.

She will also discuss how itinerant health professionals held consultations in pubs.

From the 1880s to the 1950s itinerant dentists and optometrists set up consulting rooms in the hotels of small towns which did not have their own practices.

They lived and worked in the upstairs accommodation for a few weeks before moving onto the next town.

Potential patients were notified of their arrival by advertisements in the local newspapers or by a banner hanging over the verandah rail.

/Public Release. View in full here.