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The Pretoria Hotel was officially opened on December 22nd 1900 by inaugural publican Samuel Mundy Hoad, a wheat merchant from Mannum. The hotel was named Pretoria, reflecting the fervour and emotion of the times for the British Empire which was at war with the Boers in South Africa between 1899 and 1902. The newspapers of the day closely followed the war and at the time of the hotel plans being lodged, Lord Roberts’ troops had occupied Johannesburg and Pretoria. So the naming of the new hotel was the chief way that Mannum marked the victory at Pretoria. The December 22, 1900, opening attracted visitors from Adelaide, Palmer, Mount Pleasant, Rhine Villa, Sedan, Swan Reach and the surrounding districts. It was then described in a local paper as “a handsome two-storeyed building with a broad balcony round three sides whence a splendid view of the magnificent reaches of the Murray is obtained"".