By MICK ROBERTS © ALTHOUGH today you would be hard pressed to believe it, prior to gentrification, Surry Hills was home to some of Sydney’s toughest pubs. The pubs of the inner-Sydney suburb were haunts of the city’s shadiest characters… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Glenrowan Inn where the bushranger Ned Kelly’s ‘last stand’ took place in 1880 is arguably Australia’s most infamous pub. While the history of bushranger Ned Kelly is well documented, the story of the Glenrowan Inn… Read More ›
The priest and the publican By MICK ROBERTS © THE friendly contest of chaffing – perfected and usually kept within the bar-room – spilled outside onto one of Sydney’s busiest streets during the 1980s. Chaffing – the pleasure of teasing… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © Have you wondered about that old weather beaten bloke standing at the bar in those Carlton and United Brewery posters? You know, the one proclaiming ‘I allus has wan at eleven’? His name was Sam Knott… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © WALKING the mine-field of the various names of beer glass-sizes in Australia can be tricky – especially when you’re from inter-state. There’s the butcher, the handle, a pot, middy, and, of course, the schooner. While many… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE are some publicans who truly earn a legendary status. As a bush publican, shearer, colt-breaker, mail coach driver, boundary rider, noted athlete, scalper, and successful racehorse owner and trainer, Hermann Schmidt, was one of those… Read More ›
THE identity of a man found dead at North Sydney’s long-gone Rest Hotel has remained a mystery for almost 60 years. The man, who was staying at the hotel under the name of ‘K. Cox’, was found dead in the… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © IN the heart of Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges in the charming town of Olinda is the Mount Dandenong Hotel, an hour’s drive from Melbourne and a favourite weekend dining destination for city dwellers. The Mount Dandenong Hotel… Read More ›
OLD Tom Thorne, who built the Golden Spur Hotel in the Central Queensland gold mining town of Baree, needed to be “a hard headed, two fisted man” to hold his own with the clientele. Even though Tom, who hosted the… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © AS gold slowly vanished from Hill End, in the central tablelands region of NSW, so did many of its pubs. Of the dozens of pubs that traded in Hill End during the early 1870s, the Commercial… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERT © WHEN the doors of Weir’s Hotel closed for the last time in 1937, it left just one pub – the Royal – trading in the former gold mining town of Hill End. Hill End, which once… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © COLONIAL Hobart was home to some of the most notorious pubs, not only in Tasmania, but all of Australia. With odd names, like the Pickwick Tavern, Labor in Vain, Good Woman, Lame Horse, Surely We Have… Read More ›
THE Australian Hotels Association (AHA) had its beginnings in Tasmania when a group of Hobart licensed victuallers, including ex-convict and host of the Tasmanian Inn, David Watson Bush, met to consider how best to promote and protect their businesses. The… Read More ›