13 March 1860   Overland Corner Hotel

The first hotelkeeper's licence for the Overland Corner Hotel was granted to William Brand on 13 March 1860. 

A police station was built in the area in 1855 because of 'troublesome natives and cattle duffers'. In 1859 John Chambers was given permission to build an accommodation house or hotel on Crown land on the flood plains above the River Murray to serve drovers and the local station owners. In 1861 William Brand took is new wife, Martha, to live there, where she was probably the first white woman in the area. The hotel was built of limestone from the region in two stages with the original thatch roof being replaced with iron before 1870. 

In 1862 George Brand took over the licence from his brother at a time when the 'Corner' was becoming an important staging post on the mail run from Wentworth in New South Wales. By 1866 there was a well established mail coach service which followed a route from Overland Corner to Blanchetown, Freeling, and then by rail to Adelaide. 

The 14 roomed building, fort-like with an inner courtyard, was bought by the National Trust in 1965 to preserve what is reputed to be the first stone building to be erected in the Murray Valley.

A History of the Overland Corner Hotel,  The National Trust in South Australia, 1978