How does an evening here begin?
Before Lorikeet Lanes dealt a single hand, this Macrossan Street building held goods bound for the Hodgkinson goldfields, back when Port Douglas was a booming 1880s supply port.
What was here before the first hand was ever dealt?
Built as a bonded store, the building held tools, provisions and blasting powder under lock until duty was paid and carts could head inland to the diggings.
Once the goldfields rush faded, Port Douglas was left with an empty warehouse, and Lorikeet Lanes is the trade it eventually found — cards instead of cargo, but the same doors and the same iron roof.
What the building settled into wasn't just a new use but a nightly pattern: doors open, lamps lit, a first guest, an evening of hands, a last one, doors shut. That pattern is older than any one table in the room.
1880s
built to hold goods under bond
New cargo
card tables replaced crates and cases
Old strongroom
the original iron door is still there
What the old bond store looks like today
