Post Office Hotel

Martin Byrne applied to the Licensing Committee at their monthly meeting on 9 November 1864 for a liquor license to use a house as the Post Office Hotel. There was some objections relating to Byrne's own consumption of alcohol and the fact that a bank was just next door, plus there was another hotel (Melbourne Hotel) very close to the proposed new pub. Objections were overridden however and the new hotel opened its doors just a few days later.

The building was relatively new, erected about 1860 and divided into two houses or sections. A large arched gateway divided the 2 sections. This was known locally as "the Hole in the Wall." One section had originally been the Hall of Commerce, a boot & shoe shop. The other section had originally been a drapery known as Bowen House owned by Samuel Paris, which was situated next to the Bank of Australasia.  Martin Byrne was the original owner of the building, then adjoining London Tavern. The Post Office Hotel  was located in the Bowen House section and was across the road from the Ipswich Post Office on Brisbane Street.

Every year or so the pub's licensee changed. It was a short-lived venture however as in 1873 the Post Office Hotel was put up for auction together with the other business premises in the building at the time - Hargreaves' ironmongery (tinsmith shop) and Sloan's tobacconist. The building was to be sold as a block.

In  August 1875,  R. L. Mearns a chemist and dentist, moved his dispensary into the former Post Office Hotel site, opposite the School of Arts.

Other tenants were: H. Spiro's Commercial Stores, and J. C. Allen's chemist shop which later became Minnis'.