The first hotel on this site was opened in May 1864 and was known as the Shamrock Hotel.
The Queensland Heritage Register (QHR) tells us that in late 1876 the Shamrock Hotel – designed by James Cowlishaw with Charles Midson the contractor – was reconstructed as a two- storey masonry building with verandahs.
In 1880 it became the Port Office, a two storeyed rendered brick building with a corrugated iron roof and Classical detailing combined with decorative cast iron work. It was built in 1879-80 to a design by FDG Stanley, the Colonial Architect. It replaced an earlier building nearby.
The hotel’s name derives from its proximity to the old Port Office. A slipway and wharves were adjacent. In 1885 a two-storey extension was constructed at the rear of the building.
The QHR says: “In 1888 the remodelled hotel was described as being ‘extremely commodious, containing (besides public and private bars and an attractive clubroom) fifteen bedrooms, a drawing room, two bathrooms and four public rooms on the ground floor’.
“The hotel was patronised by workers from nearby shipping and industrial and riverside businesses.”
With the change of licensee around 1909, John Chillan Cutbush renamed the hotel the Port Office Hotel.
On 22 December 1910 the Telegraph noted the hotel had “for a little over a year been in the hands of Mr J.C. Cutbush… son of Mr G.B. Cutbush who has been for so long associated with the liquor trade in Brisbane.”
The paper reported that Port Office Hotel had been “considerably renovated and enlarged, and Mr Cutbush’s experience in his father’s hotel has eminently fitted him for the responsibility which now rests upon his shoulders.”
In 1929 the building was extended to provide more space for the Department of Labour which had occupied the building since 1906. A tide marker on the wall of the building since the turn of the century was damaged during the 1974 floods but was later replaced.
The Heritage survey tells us in 1955 the hotel was refurbished under the direction of architect F L Cullen. “This work included the removal of all the verandahs, lacework, canopies and chimneystacks and renovation of the interior fittings,” it says.
The hotel has undergone many changes over the years. The survey tells us: “Internally some of the hotel’s early timber doors, architraves and skirtings survive but otherwise the majority including the stair has been altered in various refurbishments since the 1950s.”
The Port Office has faced near disasters over the years. In 1893 it suffered extensive flood damage, and again in 1974 in the great Brisbane flood. Sadly floodwaters hit the hotel again in 2011.
In January 2019 the hotel was gutted by a fire which was believed to have started in the kitchen before moving to the ceiling and taking hold of the building.
For then owners Nick and Meagan Gregorski, it necessitated a seven-month closure and rebuild.
Not for the first time, loyal locals showed up in support.
Meagan Gregorski told Backstreet Brisbane:
“When news of the fire spread, this incredible group of local regulars materialised, ready to do whatever was needed. While they couldn’t help with the rebuild, they certainly maintained their loyalty, even when we only had two beers on tap and three lunch dishes on the menu created from a tiny kitchenette upstairs. They kept coming every day. Without them, it would have been heartbreaking. We call them The Front Bar Army, and we cannot thank them enough.”
It was indicative of the affection in which The Port Office Hotel has been held for many years.
Come in soon and say hello.