One Tree is a location on the Cobb Highway on the flat plain between Hay and Booligal in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. In 1862 a public house was built there, originally called Finch's Inn and the locality developed as a coach changing-stage and watering-place between the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan rivers. One Tree village was surveyed and proclaimed in 1882, though the location remained as just an amenity on the plain, centred on the hotel. The existing One Tree Hotel is the second building of that name to occupy the site. The first hotel was destroyed by fire in 1903. The hotel was re-built in the same manner as the original structure. The licence of the One Tree Hotel was relinquished in 1942 by its last publican, Frank McQuade. The One Tree Hotel is an important historical building, providing a tangible link to the heyday of pastoral settlement in the Riverina. The name ‘One Tree’ derives from the presence of a large gum tree on the otherwise treeless plain. The landmark tree was destroyed by a storm in January 1900.
Structure of the hotel
The One Tree Hotel is constructed of split cypress-pine logs, with verandahs on three sides and a hipped corrugated-iron roof. Twelve-paned windows are located between the four panel doors which open along the verandahs. There is a detached kitchen and small weatherboard shed at the rear of the building. The building was an accurate 1903 replication of the original 1862 hotel which had been destroyed by fire. The insurance company, the Australian Mutual Fire Insurance Society, stipulated the hotel was to be replaced with one identical to the original. The One Tree Hotel was placed on the Register of the National Estate in May 1991.
Literary associations
An alternate name for One Tree was "Hell", and the locality was referenced in Banjo Paterson's poem Hay and Hell and Booligal. An alternate suggestion is that 'Hell' refers to Hells Gate, a property near Maude, between Hay and Balranald.
