travelling". A Government land-sale, which included lots at Oxley township, was held at Hay on 9 March 1868. Tyson's brick hotel was called the Oxley Hotel; during 1869 Thomas Donahee was recorded as the licensee. In April 1870 at the Hay Police Court Daniel Murphy, "formerly of Maude", applied for a licence for the Oxley Hotel (which was subsequently granted). In December 1870 George Carter was successful in his application for a licence for a second public-house at Oxley, called the Stockman's Hotel. George Carter remained publican of the Stockman's Hotel at Oxley until 1872 when he apparently closed his establishment to carry on the nearby Paika Creek Hotel at Paika Creek. The Oxley Hotel was once again the sole public-house at the township; Daniel Murphy remained publican until 1874. In June 1874 the publican's licence for the Oxley Hotel was transferred from Daniel Murphy to John Murphy. The ownership of the Oxley Hotel apparently remained in the hands of James Tyson (with the various publicans leasing the hotel). In January 1875 advertisements were placed in the Riverine Grazier newspaper by Tyson's nephew, James Tyson Jnr., seeking a "respectable tenant" for the Oxley Hotel. A month later it was reported that John Murphy's licence for the Oxley Hotel was to be transferred to Mr. Robert Jackson. Jackson was the publican of the Oxley Hotel during 1875 to 1877. In 1878 Michael Joseph Delandre took over the licence. Delandre had previously been a policeman, stationed at Maude. A traveller to Oxley in early 1879 reported that "Mr. Delandre… runs a hotel business with a little storekeeping combined". The Oxley Hotel was described as "one of the most comfortable and cleanly roadside houses I have met with; the building is substantial and commodious". The writer reported that Delandre "with an eye to business, is constructing a pontoon bridge, which he intends laying across the river in front of his house". He added: "In his undertaking [Delandre] deserves support and success, for the bridge will be a great boon to travelling stock, and also to the passengers from Hay to Balranald, as Messrs. Cobb and Co. will run coaches between those towns as soon as the bridge is completed, whereas at present the mails are carried on horseback". Just two years later another traveller who arrived at Oxley on the mail-coach described Delandre's pontoon-bridge as "a wretched apology for a bridge, in the