The Wimmera Hotel, built in 1858 on the south-east corner of Wilson and Firebrace Streets (95 Firebrace Street), was the third licensed hotel in Horsham.

The owner was John Gillies, a man who would figure prominently in Horsham's business and land development.

He arrived in late 1849, when Horsham was little more than a shanty town, and started a blacksmithing business on the north-west corner of Firebrace and Hamilton Streets.

The Wimmera Hotel was his first foray into the hotel business - he would go on to own four more before his death in 1898.

Employing builders R Spry and W Laidlaw, and bricklayers Rudd and Candy, he built a two-storey brick structure with enormous timber stables extending all the way south to Hamilton Street.

Reminiscences published by Mrs Mary Bodey in December 1914 related how, in those very early days of Horsham, the station hands galloped the 250m on their horses through the open forest directly between Bowden's Horsham Inn [located at 31 Roberts Avenue] and Gillies' newer Wimmera Hotel (Horsham Times, 04 Dec 1914).

She described Gillies as "an exceptionally honest publican", an important attribute in the days when publicans often acted as default bankers.

They cashed the pay cheques of station hands and shearers, but ensured they did not drink it away entirely.

Gillies sold the Wimmera Hotel to Robert Beaumont in 1875. In 1876 Beaumont suffered a terrible loss by fire.

Fires were a constant threat in a time of dry wooden buildings with heating and lighting supplied by candles, kerosene and solid fuel.

Beaumont lost everything except the billiards room. The rest of the hotel and the huge stables were gone, as were many valuable horses, including six belonging to the Cobb & Co coach line.

Several adjoining properties in Wilson Street were also severely damaged.

Beaumont built a new hotel, this time a single-storey structure. In addition, he built a large, buttressed-brick barn (which still stands today as a tyre outlet at 103 Firebrace Street) with an associated stock-yard. Sales of horses, cattle and sheep were held there every Saturday.

Beaumont sold the hotel to John Gillick in 1882. Gillick changed the name to the "Wimmera Farmers United Hotel" but sold it after only two years. The hotel changed hands twice more, ending up in the hands of Phillip McCabe in 1886.

McCabe ran the hotel and stables until 1894 when he leased it to Caroline Martin, who appears to have poured a considerable amount of money into modernising the hotel.

It had 16 single rooms and four double rooms fully appointed with wash-stands and dressing tables. She was also able to secure a late licence in 1895, closing at 3am to provide accommodation for arrivals on the Melbourne to Adelaide express train.

Unfortunately, this was at the time of Victoria's bank and land crash. In July 1897 she had to sell everything in a "realisation sale".

As an indication of the seriousness of this financial crisis in Victoria, the hotel's rates valuation in 1891 was £280. Six years later the valuation had fallen to a mere £120.

After the realisation sale, Phillip McCabe resumed management of his hotel, changing the name back to the "Wimmera Hotel".

In 1908 he replaced the acetylene lamps with piped town gas lights. In 1909 he retired from active management of the hotel, leasing it to Daniel Scullion (1909-1910) then to John O'Shea (1911-1918).

McCabe died in 1916. His executors continued the business for a time before selling it in September 1918 to Louis Blundell for £3,000. Blundell promptly relinquished the licence, demolished the hotel in early 1919 and waited for prices to improve after the war.

The property was eventually sold in 1927 to the Bank of Australasia (later the ANZ Bank), which built an imposing two-storey structure in brick.

The bank was demolished in about 1975 to be replaced in 1979 by a cafe, Mums Restaurant. The designer appears to have followed the original lines of the Wimmera Hotel.

Since 1982 the building has been occupied by Olsen and Carter, public accountants.