Palace Hotel, Broken Hill

Palace Hotel is a heritage-listed pub at 227 Argent Street, Broken Hill, City of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. It has also been known as the Broken Hill Coffee Palace, Mario's Hotel and Marios. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]

Palace Hotel
Location	227 Argent Street, Broken Hill, City of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	31.9598°S 141.4638°E / -31.9598; 141.4638
New South Wales Heritage Register
Official name: Palace Hotel; Mario's Hotel; Marios
Type	state heritage (built)
Designated	2 April 1999
Reference no.	335
Type	Hotel
Category	Commercial
Location of Palace Hotel in New South Wales

History

The hotel was originally built as a Temperance movement coffee palace, the Broken Hill Coffee Palace. It was designed by Melbourne architect Alfred Dunn and built in 1889 at a cost of £12,190, opening on 18 December that year.[2][3] The coffee palace was not a financial success, running at a loss for its first three years, and by July 1892 media reports indicated the company and lessees were "stone broke".[4] In that month, the lessee applied for and was granted a liquor license, at which time it was renamed the Palace Hotel.[5][6]

Owner Mario Celotto painted a mural of Botticelli's Venus on a ceiling. This led to many more murals being painted both by Celotto and other artists, making the hotel a tourist attraction.[7]

The 1994 Australian comedy-drama film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert, filmed many of its Broken Hill scenes in the Palace Hotel, which producer Al Clark described as "drag queen heaven". The movie describes the hotel's murals as "tack-o-rama".[8]

Description

Heritage listing

Palace Hotel was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]

See also

References

1. "Palace Hotel". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. H00335. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
2. "History". The Palace Hotel Broken Hill. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
3. "BROKEN HILL". Adelaide Observer. XLVI (2516). South Australia. 21 December 1889. p. 19. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "Yesterday's Brevities". Evening News (7842). New South Wales, Australia. 20 July 1892. p. 6. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
5. "LICENSING COURT". Barrier Miner. 5 (1347). New South Wales, Australia. 20 July 1892. p. 3. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
6. "Advertising". Barrier Miner. 5 (1328). New South Wales, Australia. 28 June 1892. p. 4. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
7. Wainwright, Sofie (21 March 2017). "Broken Hill's iconic Palace Hotel, featured in film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, up for private sale". ABC News. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
8. Wadsworth, Kimberly (30 May 2014). "Shrines of Obsession: The Real-World Locations of 11 Cult Films". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.

Bibliography

• Attraction homepage (2013). "The Palace Hotel".
• Destination NSW. "The Palace Hotel, Broken Hill".

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Palace Hotel, entry number 00335 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 1 June 2018.

External links

Media related to Palace Hotel, Broken Hill at Wikimedia Commons