Federal Hotel Longreach
Date Published
: Hotel / Public House
: Central (Qld)
: Longreach
: 1898
Federal Hotel Longreach built by Jimmy and Evaline Ah Foo (or Affoo)
Federal Hotel Longreach
A well-known Chinese publican, Jimmy Ah Foo (or Affoo), started out in Springsure where his family hosted a boarding house before he moved onto the northern goldfields of Queensland during the 1870s and 1880s. Eventually he returned to Springsure where he became one of three Chinese publicans, the others being Harry Ah Hing (the Shearer’s Arms), Willie Ah Wah (the Springsure). Jimmy had the Carrier’s Arms.
At 23, in 1866, he made a trip to Rockhampton and married Evelina Vessey, a 16 year old girl from Lincolnshire, England. They returned to Springsure until 1873 when they moved to the goldfields of Charters Towers and the Palmer River, where they ran hotels, including the Canton Hotel in Thornborough in the Tablelands Region of Queensland. The town rose to prominence in the 1870s as a gold mining town. The remains of the Canton Hotel, a deserted corrugated iron shed, with a verandah slung on the front, was destroyed by heavy winds in recent times.
Ah Foo had a short stay at Thornborough, leaving shortly after being injured when a “countryman” shot and wounded him after he was about to leave his pub without paying his account in April 1876.
In 1877, the Ah Foos returned to Springsure, running a number of hotels, the Post Office Hotel, the Carriers’ Arms, and finally the Springsure Hotel.
During the 1880s they moved to Barcaldine, at first running the Terminus Hotel before running another Springsure Hotel. The Terminus was moved from its site in Oak Street to the corner section of Oak and Willow Streets after Patick Finn removed his Withersfield hotel to Longreach.
The Ah Foos replaced the Terminus by building a new hotel, the Springsure on the same site. Eventually Jimmy and Eveline moved to Longreach and built the two-story brick Federal Hotel.
Edison phonograph once owned by the Ah Foo's of the Federal Hotel
After a brief hotel venture in Rockhampton in 1899, Jimmy and Evelina retired to Barcaldine to run a small store and garden.
Jimmy, then in poor health, and his family moved to Longreach where he died in 1916. Both he and Evelina, who died in 1918, are buried in the local Longreach cemetery.
Jimmy and Evaline Ah Foo
Family of many talents
The Ah Foos had a family of 13 children by the 1890s, who were all highly musical and formed the ‘Affoo Family Band’, which performed in the hotel and various events in Barcaldine. The family members also toured to provide musical entertainment.
Ah Foo family
Sources:
Barcaldine: A Small Town in Queensland, Australia
