The hotel now known as The Trop was once part of a riverside leisure scene that drew visitors to Wilberforce.
Today, locals know the hotel at 10 Rose Street as The Trop. But more than half a century ago, the Tropicana Hotel-Motel was promoted alongside a destination with a name that captured the mood of the time: Marina Tropicana.
A May 1967 newspaper advertisement names Bill McLachlan as the hotel’s licensee and links the hotel-motel with Marina Tropicana and water-skiing. It is a glimpse of a Wilberforce where a visit to the pub could be part of a day spent by the Hawkesbury River.
The marina was more than a name in an advertisement. A report in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette in December 1967 recorded that a segment for the television program Bandstand had been filmed at Marina Tropicana. The surviving newspaper references point to a local recreation spot with an appeal that reached beyond Wilberforce. Search the 1967 Gazette records in Trove
McLachlan’s place in local history extends next door. After acquiring land associated with the Rose family, he set out to create the Australiana Pioneer Village. Buildings from across the district were moved to the site in 1969 and 1970, and the Village officially opened on 29 November 1970.
According to the Australian Village records, Arthur and Jean Mawson purchased the Village before McLachlan’s death in 1971; at that time, the purchase included the Tropicana Hotel. The hotel and Village have separate identities today, but their stories were closely connected during those formative years.
The pub later traded as the Heritage Hotel before returning to its Tropicana name. Its current venue listing describes that return as going back to its roots.
Some parts of the story remain to be filled in. The records reviewed by the Gazette establish the hotel-motel, marina and water-skiing connection by 1967, but do not establish when the hotel first opened, precisely what facilities made up the “water ski gardens,” or when the marina stopped operating.
For those who remember Marina Tropicana, its lawns, boats and days on the river, the Gazette would welcome photographs and recollections that could help preserve this chapter of Wilberforce history.
