As each race was run, men and an assortment of dogs ran around the hotel while the women ran around the hotel verandah following their horses. Bets were laid before each race with the three men who now stood behind the bar. The hotel toilets were located beside the stables behind the hotel, and the racetrack was between the hotel and the toilets. The hotel possessed only six chamber pots, usually one to each of the guest rooms but around 55 women were now within the hotel building. Dresses of the day were corseted and with the eighteen inch waist being the height of fashion ladies had little room for comfort.

With an abound ace of alcohol consumed the need of the ladies to relieve themselves was great, a wise design of the day was to have a divided crutch in a ladies most personal undergarment so that the tightly laced corset need not be removed.

The chamber pots were quickly filled and a solution to the problem of overflowing pots was needed.
A lush patch of rhubarb grew at the back door of the hotel between the hotel and the kitchen. The rhubarb patch was four feel wide and ten feet long and was between the hotel wall and the earth footpath now experiencing a lot of fast running feet. The chamber pots were emptied out of a window each time to race-goers were out of site. This arrangement continued until the footpath became quite muddy and the hotel owner began looking for the broken water pipe under the hotel.

The cook was a large and loud woman who had little humor when it came to her cooking. The reputation of her rhubarb pies was about to challenge. Cook grabbed a rolling pin and waddled across to the hotel to “sort out” the culprit. At this point many of the ladies felt it opportune to join the men as they ran around the hotel garden.

It was now necessary for the ladies to go to the lavatory between races with a quick dash across the track to the stables. By this time many of the hats had become dislodged and the tightly buttoned bodices loosened at the neck.The women would then wait until the “out-house” was vacant; this was not a problem for the men who made liberal use of the back wall of the stables. This dash became more of an entertainment than the horse races as the affects of the punch barrel became apparent.

A large group of people had gathered across from the hotel on the veranda of the butchers shop and stable boy’s quarters. These were mostly married men and women but as they became increasingly more drunk, they spilled onto the racetrack at the end of each race, any assumption of safety was lost.

The finishing line was the large open area between the bar and the post office. Disputed results were resolved with a fight, often starting with the jockeys, still mounted, but soon involving twenty people.
Most miners were so drunk that their punches missed the mark and nobody was hurt.

At sunset a degree of calm settled over the hotel. The visiting ladies were promised a dance so a band was formed from patrons of various musical talents. A wall panel was removed between the dining room and a storeroom making a large dance floor for the women and those men still standing and a good time was had by most. The dancing continued past midnight with Scottish reels and the occasional wild romp around the room. The ladies were the center of much attention. The next morning unconscious bodies were strewn over the hills and it was not until sunset the following day the all the miners crawled back to their camps.

It was another three weeks before the gold fields were functioning normally. By 1905 the gold was gone and the hills were silent again. Very old style. Set in 1901 horses, lots of people, old buildings falling down. Cream/brown tones, pink ribbons.