We went on the Scones and Story tour of the Hotel Corones this afternoon. The Hotel was originally the Hotel Norman until bought by Haralambos (Harry) Corones, an enterprising young fellow from Greece, in 1924. Harry had come to Australia with nothing except his 12yo cousin Dimitris and after a few years in Sydney and Brisbane, moved to Charleville to buy a cafe that was for sale. He was soon co-opted into taking on the Charleville Hotel, but later bought the Hotel Norman and transformed it into his vision of elegance and splendour. Much later, he bought the Charleville as well to add to his portfolio of some 10 hotels.
The tour is run by the information centre people, our guide being the great granddaughter of the builder engaged by Harry to build his dream. Lovely tour, got to see a whole lot of the hotel, the bar, the rooms, the very room where QANTAS was hatched, the dance hall and ended up with tea and scones in the dining room. Fortunately the whole place is now heritage listed and some amount of restoration is being undertaken.
We also looked through the 'Historic House' museum, which had some interesting things, but these places always leave you feeling a little disappointed, as if you've wandered into a junk shop, notr a museum.
Last thing, we drove out of town 10k to the 'rock pool'. Don't know anything about it except that it's just off the road and may well have been a quarry. The water was frigid of course, but i'll bet its a big hit with the locals during summer.
I've added more snaps to the Charleville tag on the right, but here is the obligatory snap d'jour:
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