Canberra Hotel, Brisbane

The foundation stone for the Temperance Hall was laid on 28 March 1864 by the Queensland Governor George Bowen, at which time the site was criticised as scarcely so central as one might desire.

The building was financed by private benefactors, particularly William Robert Black and George Marchant, and through a low-interest loan from the Independent Order of Rechabites (a friendly society committed to temperance).

Portraits of the benefactors Black and Marchant were unveiled in the dining room; these had been commissioned from Sydney artist Norman St Clair Carter in January 1929.

In 1934, a decision was made to add a further 3 storeys with 200 beds in larger bedrooms with private bathrooms; the original architect Arnold Brooks had designed the building to be structurally able to be extended in this way.

[5] In September 1952, it was announced that a second 11-storey block would be built in Ann Street between the existing hotel and the Brisbane School of Arts to provide another 200 rooms at the cost of £200,000.