ANYWHERE else it would be a matter for the courts or at least disputed for the sake of local pride but in laid-back Port Douglas, as long as the beer is cold, no one really cares which pub is the oldest in town.

Both the Central and Court House Hotels lay claim to the title and as both were established in 1878 and have been renovated and rebuilt numerous times since then, it won’t be easily solved.

From its prime position on the corner of Macrossan and Wharf streets, “the Courty” has witnessed the township’s incarnations from goldmine port to fishing village, sugar port and tourist mecca.

When the original one-storey hotel was built in 1878 it was one of 21 residential hotels and grog shanties serving a population of 400 thirsty people.

It was known as Buchanan’s Family Hotel but a year later, the name was changed to Buchanan’s Court House Hotel. These days, a Sunday session at the Courty is an afternoon to remember, where conversation and beer flows and the entertainment comes in the form of live music and unique local characters.

Hardy maidenhair ferns hang over the outside walkway and during early summer, conversations under the outdoor tenting are punctuated by the thud of plummeting ripe mangos. The Sunset Lounge is a more modern, upmarket cocktail venue that boasts a spectacular view as the sun sets behind the palm trees, Sugar Wharf and St Mary’s By the Sea.

The regulars can be found in the undercover area and at 5pm on a Wednesday evening long-time friends and locals Shaz Gardiner and Traci Fisher are out to celebrate Traci’s 40th birthday. Having also spent her 21st birthday here, Traci remembers what it was like in the pre-renovation days of marble competitions and bands playing on the back of a truck in the paddock behind the pub.

“There’s always a good yarn to be heard here, lots of the locals come here and tell you stories and they never let the truth get in the way,” she said.

“And there are lots of good looking men!”

Shaz remembers dancing on the tables in a yellow bikini during Sunday sessions that would start at 10am and end at 8pm during the town’s heyday in the early ’90s.

“We’d be pretty well behaved to start, just a couple of glasses of wine before lunch,” Shaz recalled.

“But after that, we’d just carry on until the bar staff reminded us what time we had to work the next day.”

Manager of four years Jason Andersen is a man of few words when it comes to explaining what it is that keeps people coming back to the Courty.

“It’s just one of those great pubs in a great location, that’s all it is,” he shrugged.

A golden past

• Port Douglas’s population peaked at 8000 when gold was discovered on the Hodgkinson River and by 1882 it had 30 troopers based there, a courthouse, storage warehouses and basic housing.
• Stagecoach companies that serviced the goldfields — including the famous Cobb and Co — travelled via the Court House Hotel and Four Mile Beach, over the Bump Track to the Tableland.
• A cyclone in 1911 devastated the town and flattened most of the buildings including Mrs J.  D. Crosbie’s Court House Hotel, which was rebuilt as a two-storey hotel on its present site.
• The township was previously known as Terrigal, Island Point, Port Owen and Salisbury  before it was named Port Douglas in honour of former Queensland Premier John Douglas.

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