The Royal Hotel is rich with history, the first timber version of the hotel was built around 1840 but it tragically burnt down in the early 1894. The story goes that the ladies of the community were fed up with their men spending too much time at the pub, so they torched it!
The original timber building was replaced with a stone building in 1895 and it is still standing proudly today. In 1880 the hotel became a railhead (where a railway line ends). In the old days, it used to be a three-week trip to Sydney but suddenly the railway line arrived and the trip became less than 24 hours.
Back then, there were more than 3,500 people living here whereas numbers have now dwindled to just 180. Fire seems to be a recurring theme at The Royal because in 1930, a traveling salesman left a candle next to a window and the curtains caught alight. But just as the fabled phoenix arises from the ashes, so too does the Royal Hotel Capertee.
