There once was a Dalby family of cornet players who held a dark tragic secret. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

In 1924, that’s 101 years ago, the Ipswich Model Band ventured onto the Darling Downs for a band contest in Toowoomba. The band went home with three silver cups, £62 in cash which is over $26,000 today, and a gold medal for its conductor.

This was a victory for the Ryan family which at the time was a family of cornet players. There was Mr. James Ryan the father, and Arthur, A.J. and William Ryan his three sons. All four of them were cornet players, three were members of the Ipswich Model Band.

The Model Band’s victory was a homecoming of sorts to the Darling Downs, because all the Ryan family were natives of Dalby. At one time there was a Dalby town band that was composed solely of Ryans, including James Ryan and three brothers, and all the others being relatives.

The patriarch of the Ryan family was Mr. James Ryan Senior who was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1832, and grew up in neighbouring County Tipperary. Mr Ryan arrived in Queensland on new year’s day 1863. Almost immediately he made his way to Dalby and begat the Ryan clan of the Darling Downs.

Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the Dalby town lighting was kerosene lamps on the top of poles at street corners, it was probably a Ryan cousin who was the popular lamp lighter.

It was Mr. Ryan’s son John Ryan who was auditor of the Dalby municipal council, member of the Wambo council, and for years was the bandmaster of the Dalby band.

And of course, another son was James Ryan Junior who with his own three sons was the prize-winning family of cornet players. It was their Ipswich Model Band’s victory in Toowoomba that harked back to a tragic story in the heart of Dalby itself.

Dalby locals today would be well acquainted with the Russell Tavern on the corner of Cunningham and Roche Streets. It’s a modern establishment and is not the first hotel on the site. A previous hotel there was called the Russell Hotel and it burnt down in around 2004. Before that, the Club Hotel burnt down in 1923. And before that, it was Webb’s Hotel that burnt down there in 1906 following a huge explosion.

The Dalby bandmaster John Ryan was the licensee of Webb’s Hotel at the time.

A neighbouring publican had borrowed a gallon of thirty-five overproof rum. That was rum which was around 77% pure alcohol which made it extremely potent in many ways. Historically the British Navy had used it to ensure damp gunpowder would still ignite, because that’s how combustible it was. 

Anyway, the overproof rum was returned and Ryan took into the storeroom at the back of the bar where he kept the spirits. The evening was getting dark and so Ryan struck a match, which was followed by a massive explosion and the unmistakable tinkering sound of shattered glass raining over the town. Tongues of flame and volumes of smoke and fumes bellowed out from the storeroom. There was only one entrance to the room and there was no chance of anyone going in to render assistance.

By the time the fire was extinguished, the Dalby bandmaster had been burnt to dust. All that was found the next morning was his gold ring that was undamaged among the ashes.

The Club Hotel was rebuilt on the site, but it lasted less than 17 years. The Russell Hotel was then built by Mr. Wilfred Adams Russell who was on the Dalby town council and the member for Dalby in the Queensland parliament. It’s Russell’s name that is remembered by the modern building on the site today.

But perhaps we should be remembering the Dalby bandmaster John Ryan who was burnt into oblivion there, and his cornet playing relatives who a century ago came back to the Darling Downs to take home the trophies.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4AK.

Photo credits:
Two men fighting grass fire in the Dalby, Western Downs Region, 1927 – State Library of Queensland.
Dalby Ryan family of cornet players – Queensland Times, Ipswich – 1st December 1923 page 6.
Ipswich Model Band at band contest in Toowoomba, 1924 – Picture Ipswich.
Wambo Shire Council office, Dalby, Queensland, 1908 – Aussie~mobs via Flickr 2014.
Webb’s Hotel, Dalby, John Ryan Proprietor – Queenslander, Brisbane, 21st February 1903, page 417.
Wilfred Adams Russell MLA, member for Dalby 1926-1932 – Picture Western Downs.