Queensland Women Hotel Owners around the turn of the 20th Century

Dr Joanne Dolley - 2025 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellow

Women played a prominent role in the history of hotels in Queensland around the turn of the 20th century. State Library of Queensland has collated state records of the annual licensed victuallers in Queensland¹ from 1900-1914, assembled from the Queensland Government Gazettes (1860-1914). A licensed victualler was someone granted a license to sell alcohol, also known as a publican or innkeeper. The spreadsheet has over 30,000 individual records of licensees and of those, 29% were female.  You can check the victualler licence database to see if any of your Queensland relatives ran a pub at one time, as it details licensee names, dates, districts and hotel names. The blog, Discovering publicans in Queensland² helpfully explains how to access this database.

The photo above shows two Barcaldine hotels that were at some point operated by women: the Shakespeare Hotel by Emma Shakespeare 1900-1911 and the West End Hotel by Ellen Dobbins in 1913.³  Holding the license may not have meant that the person owned the hotel, but there are plenty of known female hotel owners throughout Queensland’s history. This blog will briefly discuss three hotel owners, Elizabeth McGuire in Mackay, Jessie Tam Sie in Innisfail and Sarah Balls in Brisbane.

Belmore Arms Hotel

Mrs Elizabeth McGuire took over running the Belmore Arms Hotel in Wood Street, Mackay,  after her husband, Barney McGuire died in the early 1880s.⁴ She remarried as Keneally, but maintained ownership of the pub, eventually passing it on to her son, Barney Junior (McGuire) in 1922.

Mrs Jessie Tam Sie

Jessie Tam Sie owned the Grand Central Hotel in Edith Street, in Innisfail ⁶. Jessie was born in Townsville in 1875. She inherited the hotel when her husband, Tam Sie, died in 1931. Jessie was entrepreneurial, expanding the hotel and making income from other land holdings and shares.

Jessie was a prominent local businesswoman, philanthropist and active community member. For example, she was elected as patroness of the Far North Queensland Ladies’ Bowling Association and at her passing in 1954, her kindness and contributions as a “pioneer” to the Innisfail region were noted in newspapers⁹.

Mrs Sarah Balls

Mrs Sarah Balls (nee Blasdale) was another widow who started with inheriting from her husband, when she was widowed in 1898. Sarah Balls held the victuallers’ licences for:
•    the Queens Hotel in Maryborough¹⁰, 1900-1901
•    Prince of Wales Hotel¹¹, Edward Street, Brisbane, 1901-1904
•    Stock Exchange Hotel in Queens Street, Brisbane, 1904-1914

Mrs Sarah Balls was no stranger to controversy. In 1907, she was fined £5 for illegally serving alcohol on a Sunday. Mrs Balls paid the fine, despite her council in court arguing that Mrs Balls at the time of the incident was at the front of the hotel conversing with a guest and that she had no knowledge that two men had gone into the bar for drinks.

Sarah Balls progressed to being an entrepreneur, using her growing wealth to start new industries, such as ‘Diver Brand’ fish cannery at Bongaree, Bribie Island in 1908. The company name was ‘Caloundra Fresh Fish Preserving and Canning Co.’, but the product brand was “Diver”.¹⁴

Mrs Balls had a jetty built and was in trade news across the country for modernising by introducing refrigeration . It is recorded that some fishermen found it “most unusual working for a woman owner”.¹⁶ Over time, she became known as Mum Balls. The cannery had to close due to a lack of tin which was being used for the war effort.¹⁷

Sarah leapt at the chance to take on railway refreshment rooms that gave the licensee permission to serve alcohol & food to railway patrons at certain train stops. By 1917, Sarah ran thirteen refreshment rooms on the Central Western Line west from Rockhampton. 

Sarah created opportunities for her family. Her daughter, Mrs Eva Lissner, managed the Emerald railway refreshment room and the buffet carriage on the Central line train and leased Bethania Junction Rooms.¹⁸ The industry declined with the State Railway Department taking over most of the railway refreshment room licenses by 1917.¹⁹

Sarah’s contribution to the local area is remembered by a plaque at Bribie Island that notes, “her hands-on approach to business”.

Female Hoteliers of Queensland

Considering that, “until 1970 in Queensland, it was prohibited to serve women alcohol in the public bar”²², numerous women overcame the challenges of operating in this male-dominated industry and became successful hoteliers. Many of the female hoteliers who became owners through becoming a widow, also had the task of singlehandedly raising children. Women, including Jessie Tam Sie and Sarah Balls, notably used their hotel resources to go on to be entrepreneurs and contribute to their local communities and the Queensland business landscape.

Dr Joanne Dolley
2025 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellow
The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellowship  is generously supported by the John Allpass Charitable Foundation.

Read other blogs by Dr Joanne Dolley:

• Hair Salons to Hospitals – Histories of Queensland Businesswomen
• Capturing History: Women-owned Photographic Studios at the Turn of the 20th Century
• Queensland Women of Fashion: Spotlight on Hazel Barry
• Foundations of Care: Women Who Started Private Hospitals in Queensland
   

References

¹ Anon (2023) State Library of Queensland - Licensed Victuallers Index. State Library of Queensland - Licensed Victuallers Index htpps://researchdata.edu.au/state-library-queensland-victuallers-index/1326349 

² Perris,K. (2022) Discovering publicans in Queensland, June 18, 2022. 

³ Shakespeare and West End Hotels, Oak Street, Barcaldine, Queensland, 1917, State Library Record number 99183690556902061

⁴ Local Heritage Register: McGuires Hotel; Facts published by Mackay Regional Council, 2017 https://www.mackay.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/211327/Local_Heritage_Register_-_McGuires_Hotel.pdf

⁵ https://www.mackay.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/211327/Local_Heritage_Register_-_McGuires_Hotel.pdf 

⁶ Fong, N. , Queensland History Journal , Volume 25, No. 4, February 2023. 285-297

⁷ Hotel Grand Central at Innisfail in the 1950s. State Library of Queensland 

⁸ Page, S. K., & Innisfail Cane Jubilee Celebration Committee. (1930). Cane jubilee celebrations souvenir book 23-4-30. Innisfail Cane Jubilee Celebration Committee.

⁹ OBITUARY. MRS JESSIE TAM SIE, INNISFAIL. The Cairns Post (Qld.) Mon 7 Jun 1954   Page 3  

¹⁰ Queensland (1900) Sarah Balls, Maryborough, hotel not named, had victuallers’ licence issued for year ending 30 June 1901, as reported in the Queensland Government Gazette, 7 August 1900. [online]. Available from: https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/state-library-of-queensland-licensed-victuallers-index.

¹⁰ Hooper, L. (2023) “Bribie Island: Sarah Balls”, 

¹⁰ Queensland (1902) Sarah Balls, Brisbane, Prince of Wales Hotel, had victuallers’ licence issued for the period 1 July 1901 - 31 December 1901 for year ending 30 June 1902, as reported in Queensland Government Gazette, 8 February 1902. [online]. Available from: https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/state-library-of-queensland-licensed-victuallers-index.

¹⁰ Queensland (1911) Sarah Balls, Brisbane, Stock Exchange Hotel, had victuallers’ licence issued for year ending 30 June 1912, as reported in the Queensland Government Gazette, 14 September 1911. [online]. Available from: https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/state-library-of-queensland-licensed-victuallers-index.

¹¹ Queensland (1902) Sarah Balls, Brisbane, Prince of Wales Hotel, had victuallers’ licence issued for the period 1 July 1901 - 31 December 1901 for year ending 30 June 1902, as reported in Queensland Government Gazette, 8 February 1902. [online]. Available from: https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/state-library-of-queensland-licensed-victuallers-index

¹² Stock Exchange Hotel, Queen Street, Brisbane, Qld circa 1905, Kaye, (Aussie~mobs), via https://picryl.com/media/stock-exchange-hotel-queen-street-brisbane-qld-circa-1905-a28cf0

¹³ Bribie Island Historical Society. Portrait of Mrs Sarah Balls. 

¹⁴ Diver Brand Fish, “Truth”, Brisbane, 28 June, 1908. 

¹⁵ TRADE. FINANCE. AND PASTORAL., The Brisbane Courier (Qld.) , Wed 31 Aug 1910  Page 3  

¹⁶ Lergessener, J.G. 2006. “Oysterers of Moreton Bay” (P.138)

¹⁷ Clark, B. (2015) History – Bribie Island Cannery, By Barry Clark – Bribie Island Historical Society, April 4, 2015

¹⁸ Volker, M. & Mate, G. 2012 Railway refreshment rooms, Queensland Historical Atlas: 

¹⁹ Volker, M. & Mate, G. 2012 Railway refreshment rooms, Queensland Historical Atlas

²⁰ Heindorff, F. (1929) Heindorff Family Photograph Album 1929. State Library Record number 99199993402061

²¹ Historical plaque commemorating the contribution of Mrs Sarah Balls to industry on Bribie Island. Photo by Judy Carter, 2025.

²² van Vonderen,J., Thu 8 Mar 2018, Why was Queensland's ban on women drinking in public bars lifted? , ABC News