Imperial Hotel

One of only a handful of buildings left standing from Ravenswood's gold-boom years, this two-storey brick hotel on Macrossan Street was built in 1901 for publican James Delaney and rebuilt within the same year after a fire took out most of the block. The Delaney family ran it for much of the twentieth century, and the bar itself, red cedar joinery, stained glass, a run of original fittings, is largely unchanged, a rarity in a building type usually renovated beyond recognition. It sits on the Queensland Heritage Register today, still pouring cold beer and cooking counter meals, with upstairs rooms kept furnished in period style for overnight guests and live music on some nights. Ravenswood itself is a near-ghost town of a few hundred people between Charters Towers and the coast, its streets otherwise given over to old mine workings and heritage walks. The Imperial is the reason to stop and stay a night rather than just drive through.