January 1939
The hotel was once owned by an international vaudeville and circus performer! Newspapers reported that the colourful former proprietor of the Commonwealth Hotel, Jules Ajax, had passed away. The Frenchman had moved to Australia in the early 1900s following a successful international stage career in both vaudeville and circus performances. Hotel regulars described him as always “cheerful, with a fund of anecdotes from his days on the stage.”