The Commercial hotel in Wentworth was built in 1886.

In 1924 EJ Sykes pulled down the old hotel, and rebuilt it. The Licenses Reduction Board approved an extension of time for improvements in 1924. This may be because, as Des said, they had a fool of an architect, who might have been good at designing churches, but not hotels.

In the Commercial, Selina Sykes was known as 'Mrs. Sykes', or 'The lady', to the clientele. When she was about, even the roughest behaved himself like the proverbial gentleman... they were both respected (and) regarded as models for the conduct of decent people.

When I visited in 2004, the Commercial had been renamed the Sturt. I spoke to the licensee about my grandfather being a previous owner. He pointed to a sepia photo (on the right - taken by Des Sykes) hanging on the wall, and asked me if I knew who the people were. “Yes. It was the visit by the NSW Governor. My mother Joan, is there, with my aunt and grandfather. It was taken in 1932.”

As EJ got older, his three children (Des, Maureen and Joan) took it in turns to run the Commercial. My parents ran it for several years from 1945 (when I was born) to about 1949.

I was brought up to about the age of four in the Commercial. The most vivid memory I have of my early years was when, outside the brick rooms at the back, I tried to put washing through a wringer, and ended up in hospital. I had seen someone (it might have been my mother, or a washerwoman), putting clothes into the two rubber rollers at the top of the washing machine, geared to the motor, and continuously turning. I wanted to have a go, but I was told I couldn’t. So when the washerwoman was away for a minute, I pushed the wet clothes into the gap – I could see it was risky – but the clothes wouldn’t grab – so I pushed the clothes closer to the spinning gap. It grabbed my fingers, and pulled my hand, and then the length of my arm in, and began to tear skin off under the upper arm. I don't recall the screams from me, nor from the people who found me. This put me in the Wentworth hospital for a week or more, and a skin graft - skin was removed from my upper leg to put on my wounded arm. It was a new thing in those days, and had been used to treat soldier’s wounds during the war. The scars are still slightly visible.

The hotel was renamed around 20 years ago and is today the Captain Sturt Hotel, with licensees Andrew and Fiona Mackie. It remained in the family until 1954.