THERE was a time when the Post Office Hotel at Mossman had a true international flavour, its lodgings booked out each sugar cane cutting season with workers from around the world.

Leaving their families for extended periods, these men travelled to make their living from the back-breaking physical labour, each cutting on average 10 tonnes of cane a day.

They battled heat and humidity, snakes, exhaustion and rogue landowners and by the Friday night were ready to head to the PO to gamble their earnings and enjoy a well-deserved cold beer.

These days, the pub has evolved into a true, low-key local, still frequented by Mossman Mill workers, cane growers, and with a strong focus on supporting the Mossman Sharks rugby league team.

It’s a functional place, where the TAB and its TV screens form a central part of the action and the walls are adorned with signed footy jerseys, tipping competition results and sports memorabilia.

A beer garden doesn’t get much action now but, in its heyday, bands would play to a packed pub where punters queued three deep at the bar.

Two beady-eyed fish attached to the wall keep a lookout, although no one is sure of their heritage, hotel manager Kelly Maher said.

“We tried to take them down one day but people went up in arms.”

Ms Maher said the appeal of the venue is its atmosphere.

“Everyone’s pretty cool and Mossman is a family-orientated town where everyone watches out for everybody else,” she said.

“The clientele are well behaved up here because they know if they stuff up in one pub, they’re banned from them all.”

Oddly, the pub is at its busiest late on a Saturday morning, but this is when long-time local Marty Harris holds his fundraising raffles for the rugby league juniors, and has done so for 30 years.

He is recognised for his ongoing dedication with a Douglas Shire plaque of achievement on the wall.

Like any small cane growing town, the fortunes of its residents and the local pubs are linked to the fortunes of the mill and success of the crushing season.

Ex-mill worker “John”, who wants to remain anonymous, came here in 1957 for a two‑year stint and never left.

He remembers the villainy that went on, when cane cutters would cut out the middle of a block before the cane inspector came around.

“People would come from all around the world. I got friendly with some Spaniards who would do the season and then go home. They wouldn’t have to work for the rest of the year because the exchange rate was so good.”

Born and bred Mossmanite Steve Santarossa is elusive about how long he has frequented the hotel but, in order to keep it legal, calls it “about 34 years”.

“Not much has changed since I’ve been coming here.”

Facts:

• George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple named the Mosman River (later changed to Mossman) after Hugh Mosman in 1873, while looking for a port for the goldfields.
• The Post Office Hotel was established in 1929 and still has the original green tiles on its exterior.
• In 1942, during WWII, a bomb was dropped by the Japanese on the Zullo farm, north of Mossman. A monument marks the spot.
• The area has had a strong agricultural industry since its founding and can thank Chinese labourers for planting and harvesting the first sugar cane.
• The last year that cane was cut by hand was 1978.
• Before renovation, the TAB wall used to divide the main bar from the Ladies’ Lounge, as women were not allowed in the front bar. 

Share this article