Not the first, but Orange’s Bellair Motel was at the forefront of Aussie motel boom

A touring photographic exhibition that takes a nostalgic look at Australia’s roadside motels has shone a little light on Orange’s own pioneering tourism venture, the Bellair Motel.

Currently on exhibition at the Orange Regional Museum, Reception this way: motels – a sentimental journey with Tim Ross looks back on a time when the roadside motel was an integral part of the Australian holiday experience. 

The exhibition was developed by the National Archives of Australia in collaboration with comedian Tim Ross, who describes it as a “pictorial love letter to a somewhat bygone era, capturing the glamour and convenience of the roadside motel…”

But when the exhibition launched last November, locals were left questioning why Orange’s own claim to motel history did not get a mention, as it’s often been said the Bellair Motel, now known as the Mid-City Motor Lodge, was the first in NSW.

“When we opened, we had lots of locals come in and kind of question why the Bellair Motel wasn't featured,” Orange Regional Museum Manager, Dr Mary-Elizabeth Andrews, said.

“Obviously, locals really felt that it warranted it with this story going around that it was the first motel in NSW….  What's lovely about that is it's led us to do a little bit of digging and a little bit of research, and we found a wealth of information about the opening of the Bellair  Motel.”

When the Bellair Motel opened in July 1957, it was the ninth motel operating in NSW, with others already established in Bathurst, Albury, Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Goulburn, Dubbo, Gosford and Taree. Four more were also in the process of being built at Cowra, Tamworth, Wellington and Queanbeyan.

But the dream of an “American” motel for Orange had begun some years prior.

“I think what is really interesting that's come to light, is the idea was really early in the piece,” Dr Andrews said.

“So the people who conceived of the motel here in Orange, Hugh McCarron and Malcolm Middleton, actually imported that idea from the United States. Hugh McCarron had been in California and had seen a motel and stayed in a motel when there weren't any in Australia at that time, that was 1952.”

At the time, McCarron and Middleton conducted the local tourist office in Summer Street. Over the next few years, the plan to build a motel in Orange took shape and attracted enormous interest from local backers.

“The idea took a little bit of time to get off the ground… but interesting that they started that discussion well before motels existed in New South Wales,” Dr Andrews said.

The story of how the idea for a motel was “sown in California” appears in a special newspaper supplement that accompanied the official opening in July 1957. “Bellair” was chosen to reflect this origin story, being named for the then-new suburb of Hollywood. The problem was that locals apparently pronounced “Bel-Air” as “Blair” and so the owners had to settle on a different spelling.

The souvenir supplement details the modern features of the novel structure and its striking colour scheme of alternating doors painted skyline blue, poinsettia red, daffodil yellow, regal blue and dove grey.

“It was something that was just completely unheard of,” Dr Andrews said of the fanfare and excitement that surrounded the opening of these new motels in Australia.

“Car travel is obviously the thing that precipitates the idea, but it's that shift away from staying in pub-style hotel accommodation in regional NSW to something that's geared towards car travel and geared towards families as well — it was a totally novel idea.

“I think this exhibition really illuminates that well because it looks at the emergence and heyday of the motel… It’s a great exhibition topic. There’s that nostalgia and personal recollection, but it's also about the history of design, and it's about economic development, and it's about the changing way in which we live our lives and we're always interested in investigating that.”

Reception this way: motels – a sentimental journey with Tim Ross runs until March 2, 2025 at the Orange Regional Museum.