A family-friendly hotel that boasts excellent food, friendly staff and fantastic live music.

Our History

Established in 1881 as the Woods Family Hotel by Charles Woods, the pubs first licensee, a young English emigrant, son of a publican who had dreams of promise and prosperity. Unfortunately it was a dream that could not be fulfilled while he was the licensee as the lack of a train station allowing residents access to Hamilton’s railway line – the Newcastle to Maitland line (opened in 1857) meant that goods and passengers carried by rail and destined for Hamilton would rattle straight past to Newcastle.

The case for a rail stop and platform at Hamilton mounted through the 1860s. But it wasn’t until 1872, after three years of intense lobbying by local residents, that a platform for the great Northern Line at Hamilton was opened.

The pub now conveniently situated 100 paces from the Hamilton Railway Station was in a prime position to accommodate all the people who began to move around for employment, leisure and shopping. But it wasn’t Charles Woods who got to reap the benefits of the new railway station; it was Charles Henry Eyre who became the licensee of the Woods Family Hotel in 1884. With the completion of the spectacular Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge, the Sydney to Newcastle rail link was finished. It was now possible for passengers from Maitland to change trains at Hamilton and travel to Gosford and Sydney. Hamilton became known as ‘the Sydney junction’.

In 1886, the Newcastle Licensing Court gave Charles Henry Eyre permission to change the name of Woods Family Hotel to the Sydney Junction Hotel.

The Sydney Junction Hotel has changed in appearance over its lifetime. Additions were made in 1921. In 1941 the hotel was demolished and rebuilt.