The Arms and The Man

More news on Rotto’s hotel: ‘Quokka Arms upgrade in limbo’, said The West yesterday.

“The proposed $6.5 million upgrade of the Quokka Arms hotel is up in the air, with the Rottnest Island Authority failing to reach an agreement with Sandalford Wines owner Peter Prendiville after five months of talks.”

In the article RIA head honcho Laurie O’Meara is paraphrased as saying he was hopeful a lease deal could be done with PP in the new financial year, but don’t hold your horses.

The poor old hotel. There seems to be no end to the indignity the old gel has to suffer. Last year The West had an excellent story about foul-smelling liquid spreading across the floor of the bar during opening hours.

Of course the hotel was built as a summer residence for WA Governors.

As Rigby and Ward relate in the Rottnest Island Sketchbook, “…old-time Rottnesters can still recall the sight of a Government House butler in tail-coat and knee-breeches marching across the old Government House jetty to deliver, with his Excellency’s compliments, a billy of milk from the vice-regal dairy herd, to a visiting yacht which had brought Her Majesty’s mail over from the mainland.”

“The Governors usually spent up to two months each year on the Island, bringing over the butler, other servants and carriages. The last occupant was Sir Gerald Strickland, and the Island's stylish Vice-Regal days ended in 1912,” says the RIA website.

Some idle browsing led Rotto Bloggo to this treasure trove of information about alcohol tenders for the hotel.

Because it’s government-run, the hotel has to tender for the supply of booze, and they get in a lot over summer.

In the 21 days from 20 December 2005 to 10 January 2006, the Rottnest Island Authority tendered for $70,158 of booze.

20 Dec 05: beer $10,035 (winning tenderer: Carlton United Bev)
20 Dec 05: alcohol $16,442 (winning tenderer: Harbottle On-Premise)
22 Dec 05: beer $13,119 (winning tenderer: Swan Brewery)
28 Dec 05 alcohol $12,153 (winning tenderer: Harbottle On-Premise)
10 Jan 06: alcohol $18,409 (winning tenderer: Harbottle On-Premise)

And don’t forget the kegs: on 13 Feb 2006 the Swan Brewery won a tender for 99 kegs of beer: $14,742.

Booze aside, there was also a tender in January 2006 for ‘provision of marketing research services’. It was worth $118,000 and the winning tenderer was Markey Equity. The completion date was 11 January 2007.

Today’s image is from Flickr user Jodi and Jonny. Why get trashed at the hotel when you can spend time reading on the beach?