Regular customers of a hotel in St. Kilda (Victoria) call it ‘Petticoat Pub’ [Gippsland Hotel]. Women comprise the whole staff. Licensee Mrs. O. K. Edgar says that women are quicker and more courteous than men at hotel work.

The staff of six includes her two daughters, Pat (22) and Leslie (19).

“The girls do all the heavy work,” said Mrs. Edgar.

“They can roll and tip kegs up to 36-gallon capacity with ease. It’s just amatter of practice. The same applied to heavy yard and cellar work.”

According to Mrs. Edgar, crowds of men are more easily controlled by women.  None of the women staff drink or smoke. When they finish work, the bar is cleaned, the money counted and then they have a cup of tea at the bar.

– The Daily News (Perth, Western Australia), Wednesday November 20 1946.

In response to this story, Damien Coleman writes on a social media post: “A very late response to this query but I have only just recently joined this group after discovering this article about one of my Grandmother’s pubs ( my mum is the little girl in the photo). The pub was the Gippsland Hotel – it was situated next to the Astor theatre. It has long been demolished – it disappeared as a result of widening Dandenong road many years ago.”

More on Olive Kathleen Edgar and her pubs: Olive’s three ‘petticoat pubs’ were run entirely by women

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Categories: Barmaids, Melbourne Hotels

Tags: O. K. Edgar, Petticoat Pub, St Kilda, Victoria