Timber and maize drawn from the Upper Macleay by bullock and horse teams terminated their journeys at Greenhill, where the cargo was loaded onto droghers to be carried onto the ocean going ships at Kempsey.

The town was serviced by businesses and tradesmen of every description, and until 1897 boasted two hotels.

These were the Turf Club Hotel on the northern side of the Armidale Road and the Greenhill Hotel on the southern side.

The Turf Club Hotel was opened in 1887 by Charles Porter, who announced that the commodious hotel had superior accommodation, was unexcelled for comfort, economy, cleanliness and was a first class hotel for holding public meetings or banquets.

The Greenhill Hotel, originally licensed by James Cheers, was purchased by Michael McPhillips in 1879 beginning that family's long association with Greenhill.

In 1897, Michael McPhillips purchased the Turf Club Hotel which he dismantled and rebuilt on the same site as his own hotel.

There were eleven bedrooms and the Hotel was mostly full of travellers, stockmen and cattlemen, the latter placing their cattle on the large stock reserve opposite.

The family opened a general store in 1907 next to the Greenhill Hotel and a Post and Telegraph Office was opened there, which had a succession of Postmasters.

In 1939 Gordon McPhillips was appointed Postmaster.

The pace of life at Greenhill began to slow with the coming of the railway and the advent of motor transport.

The Greenhill Hotel was sold to Tooheys Limited by the McPhillips family in 1934 who then moved to the Great Northern Hotel in West Kempsey.

The licensee in 1940 was William George Burns who lived on the first floor of the hotel with his three children.

Two employees, Alan Bert ('Tony') Lee and Miss Doris Traynor were also staying at the Hotel on the first floor.

Then it happened, on Monday night March 4, 1940 the employees and licensee had retired for the evening around midnight.

Around 3 am in the morning Miss Traynor arose to attend to a crying child but on opening her door she was met with a wall of flame.

She screamed out "Tony, hurry up, the place is on fire!" Tony Lee then saw that Burns was awake and they tried to get the children out but they could not get to the internal staircase as the ground floor was well alight.

Tony took the children down the fire escape and then to Mr Burns' car for safety.

He then ran to the Postmaster Gordon McPhillips, to ring the Fire Brigade and police however McPhillips had already seen the fire and called them.

The Fire Brigade arrived and, mounting their pump on the Greenhill Ferry, proceeded to pump water on the fire but the building had already been half-consumed by the time they had arrived.

The heat was intense enough to melt the peaks on the firemen's caps and fireman Fern's boots were burnt through causing him to seek medical attention.

The once popular Greenhill Hotel was totally destroyed and an inquest into the fire returned an open verdict.

A temporary bar operated next to the site until 1954.

An earlier application to transfer the licence to Taree was approved earlier on the grounds that there was no strong demand for a hotel at Greenhill any longer.

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