TWELVE months on from the fire which destroyed the century-old building and it’s contents, the ghosts of jackaroos past continue to haunt the Conargo Hotel.
Established in 1853, recent photographs show it as the Conargo Hotel but during the 1970’s and earlier it was known as the Billabong Hotel Conargo.
Neville Lodge, well-known licensee from 1956 to 1980 is credited with changing the name.
Perhaps it had been known as the Conargo Hotel or Pub for so long, it was easier to re-brand the facade when the building was refurbished a few years ago.
And it’s fame was confirmed by the spread far and wide of the ubiquitous sticker attached to so many utes.
Like many pubs it was the social centre for the local community and the surrounding district.
Local Denilquin businessman, Harold Clapham fondly remembers his time as a jackaroo in the Riverina, where, like many young men, he met others from far places whom he would never have met otherwise.
“There was something about the Conargo Pub that attracted many people who went there to have a good time,” he said.
And never more so than for the generations of jackaroos who called the Riverina “home” for what was most likely a formative time in their careers.
For many, jackarooing on the great pastoral runs that dotted the Old Man Plain was a necessary rite of passage: and careers were founded on the basic tenets of stock and station management learned on those properties with their euphonious names.
Addresses like “Boonoke”, “Willurah”, “Steam Plains”, “Goolgumbla”, “Wonga”, “Pooginook”, “Cooinbil”, “Toganmain”, “Gundaline”, “Burrabogie”, “Mungadal”, “Caroonboon”, “Wanganella” and “Uardry” trip easily of the tongue.
Spread across the Old Man Plain, they were for a long time, important employers of jackaroos steeping them in the pastoral tradition many assumed with the nonchalance of youth.
But all wore the station name and the quality of the Merino sheep bred there as a badge of honour.
And nowhere was the spirit of the sheep stations upheld more than in the tiny bar of the Conargo Pub.
Controlled for so many years by “mine host” Neville Lodge, it was the meeting place where jackaroos from various backgrounds met and mostly formed deep friendships.
Leaning against the bar, romance budded, blossomed and faded for the jackaroos and their girlfriends from Melbourne schools.
One bride recalls she spent the first night of her honeymoon at the Conargo Pub.
“Neville Lodge was more excited than we were,” she now recounts.
“He made chicken sandwiches and served Black Velvet drinks when we arrived.”
Neville, publican for decades, was as much an institution as the pub itself, although it was his wife Betty who provided the stability essential for the smooth operation of the pub.
“Dad was a gregarious and outgoing person who got along with the working man and the landed gentry in the area who were his customers,” said Neville’s son, Paul.
“He won a scholarship to a private school in Sydney so he had mixed with all levels of society by the time he came to the Pub.
“Dad enjoyed people, loved a party and played the piano in the pub encouraged by his customers, he loved cooking, and was an avid reader which led to many long discussions over the bar well into the night.”
Many are the stories recounted about Neville – the man who never served behind the bar unless he was properly dressed which included a tie at all times.
But being correctly attired didn’t deter Neville from being a strict publican if necessary, and he was respected by all who entered his bar.
Paul said Neville kept the bar in order with his “booming voice” – “there was no need for any physical force”.
One story will suffice to illustrate the fun had on Saturday nights at the Conargo Pub and in which Neville enthusiastically participated.
Neville could play the old piano with some aplomb, and the longer the night, the closer he would get to the keys, so that in the end he was only playing the black notes.
“When he played, people would gather around and sing,” recalls Alan Lord, retired journalist with the Denilquin Pastoral Times.
“One night, three ladies were singing, and they were joined by a bloke well under the weather.
“Somebody came up behind him, and pulled his shorts down around his ankles, leaving him standing there completely exposed.
“The three women continued to sing but their notes were suddenly at a higher pitch!
“Neville didn’t see what was going on and kept on playing completely oblivious to the ructions behind him.”
It’s a matter of regret for many the Conargo Pub is now “the pub with no beer”, but of greater concern is the loss of so much historical material following the recent fire.
Some of the photographs can be replaced but there will be a few that are irreplaceable.
A caricature of Ottie Falkiner, famed studmaster at Boonoke Merino stud, Conargo, by cricketing legend Arthur Mailey, for example, had hung on the pub wall for decades – unfortunately it was the original and is now lost forever.
Great support
PLANS for the re-building of the Conargo Hotel are well advanced, with a slab of concrete to be poured soon so a temporary bar can be set up for service during the build.
“We’re planning on having the pub open in time for next year’s Deniliquin Ute Muster,”said owner, Charlie White.
“It was always the social centre of the Conargo district and we hope it will be again.”
Charlie and his brother, Robert, are shearing contractors as well as proprietors of the Conargo Junction Store, and when the hotel came on the market they saw the chance to add it to their business interests.
“The district was sad to see the loss of so many old photos as well as the building,” said Charlie.
“We’re getting a lot of support for local farmers with their time and machinery.”
Charlie also said they were encouraged by the offers of copies of photographs which had hung on the walls before the pub was destroyed by fire.
“Some of our shearing clients had provided photos and they are keen to again have them hanging in the new pub,” he said.
Long time Conargo resident Trevor Hussey and his wife Eve are giving the White’s as much support as they can.
“We want to see Charlie and his brother succeed – it’s good to see the all district is behind them,” Eve said.
Anybody wishing to add to the collection of photographs for the rebuilt Conargo Hotel, contact (03) 5884 6605.
