IF you walked into the Old Commodore Hotel at McMahon’s Point, North Sydney back in the mid-20th century between 4.45pm and 6pm, you knew better than to step into a very specific corner of the bar. Those two spots belonged exclusively to Rowley Collins and Stan Warren.

For an astonishing 35 years, this lean, weather-beaten pair of boat-builders occupied the exact same territory every single workday. Their claim to that turf was so absolute that the licensee, James Jeffries, had copper and brass nameplates permanently tacked into the wood. Any stranger who mistakenly wandered into their territory was politely ushered elsewhere.

Their historic routine began on January 1, 1912. Rowley, then 24, and Stan, 28, dropped into the Old Commodore for a casual drink after work. They liked the pub, loved the beer, and found the location convenient. What started as a casual evening out evolved into a half-century institution.

As the years ticked by, the duo got into a friendly debate about just how much beer a man could consume over a lifetime. That pub discussion birthed an ambitious target: they calculated that if they kept up their steady pace, they would each consume an incredible 15,000 gallons. While the pub crowd laughed at the time, Rowley and Stan set out to prove them wrong.

The numbers behind their feat are staggering. Depending on the exact year surveyed, the pair averaged several pints a day, rain or shine. Over their first three and a half decades, each man swallowed roughly 7,000 to 9,000 gallons of beer, translating to tens of thousands of pints. They reminisced fondly about the good old days when a pint cost a mere 3 pence, lamenting that inflation made quenching a thirst considerably dearer later in life.

Journalists of the era even calculated the staggering physical toll of their dedication. Rowley and Stan’s daily drinking habits meant lifting their glasses over a distance of two feet to their mouths and back down again. Over their decades at the bar, that translated to hundreds of thousands of individual lifts, adding up to hundreds of miles of arm movement just moving beer from the counter to their lips.

While the men initially dreamed of stretching their lifetime goal to a massive 20,000 gallons—believing they would still be hoisting pints well into their eighties—time eventually called last drinks.

Stan was the first to break the legendary partnership, passing away in 1965 at the age of 80. Rowley followed two years later in 1967 at 78. Though they ultimately fell just short of their grandest statistical targets, their legacy remains carved into local folklore. Long after the glasses were cleared and the doors of the old pub closed, the story of Rowley and Stan stands as the ultimate testament to loyalty, friendship, and a very deep love for a cold post-work pint.

The Old Commodore Hotel where Stan and Rowley drank was demolished and replaced with a modern tavern in the 1970s. It remains trading on Blues Point Road, McMahon’s Point. You can read more on the history of the pub at The Time Gents website: Commodore Hotel named after Billy Blue, Sydney puntman.

Men who drank 7,000 gallons

COPPER name-plates at their favorite position on the bar of the Old Commodore Hotel, McMahon’s Point have been tacked down for Roly [Rowley] Collins and Stan Warren.

Their claim to fame is that they have been steady patrons of the hotel for the past 35 years, in which period they estimate they have swallowed 3500 gallons of beer each.

They reckon that they drink about 20 schooners — roughly two gallons — a week each.

“We’ve been meeting here after work, rain or shine, for longer than I like to remember,” said Stan, still an eligible bachelor.

Roly, father of three children, works at a Berry’s Bay boatshed. His son Ray, an ex-serviceman, has taken up his position at the bar next to his father every afternoon.

“Beer is good; it’s the best drink of the lot and doesn’t do anybody harm if they take it regularly,” said Stan, who says the best days were when beer was 3d a pint.

“A man could afford to quench his thirst then, but It’s too dear now,” he said.

Both men say that they have a weekly drinking budget, but admit that it tends to be elastic. “It just depends how thirsty we are,” said Roly.

– Sydney Sun, Sunday 19 January 1947

They drank 9,000 gallons of beer in 36 years

Rowley Collins, 59, and Stan Warren, 63, both of North Sydney, have each drunk 9000 gallons of beer in the Old Commodore, North Sydney, since 1912.

They hope to bring the total to 15,000 gallons each in the next 24 years Rowley and Stan have occupied the same corner of the bar for 35 years. Their right to the position is indicated on the bar by two brass plates bearing their names in copperplate writing. Licensee James Jeffries put the plates on the bar. The positions opposite them are sacrosanct. No one in North Sydney would stand there between 4.45pm and 6pm.

Any stranger who takes one of the places is politely moved elsewhere.

Boat builders Rowley and Stan are small lean, tough, sun-tanned, weather-beaten. “Stan and I did a bit of casual drinking all over the place when we were young men,” said Rowley yesterday. “We had our first drink — at 3 pence a pint — in the Old Commodore on January 1, 1912 when I was 24 and Stan 28.

“We liked the pub and the beer and as it was handy to our work and homes, we became regulars.

“One day we got into an argument about how much beer a man drank in a lifetime. “The outcome was that we said if we kept on as steadily in the future as we had in the past, we’d each drink about 15,000 gallons.

20,000 Gallon Target

“The crowd laughed. We’re now proving them wrong. When we get through the next 6000 gallons to make our total 15,000 gallons each. I’ll be only 83 and Stan 87.

“If we feel then as we do now we’ll make our target 20,000 gallons.”

Dark, taciturn Stan Warren said: “I wish they served 3d pints now I’d treble my daily consumption.”

Beer consumption of Rowley and Stan works out at 5½ pints a day every day for 35 years.

To drink 15,000 gallons each at this rate will take altogether 59 years. From January 1 this year they will have to maintain their daily quota for another 23.91 years.

It is impossible to estimate the cost incurred in the first 35 years because of many changes in the price of beer. They think they have each spent about £3000.

To accomplish the 15,000-gallon objective, each will spend another £2800.

In terms of pints, each has drunk 72,000, and will drink another 48,000.

Drinking leisurely, Rowley lifts and replaces a pint five times, and takes four swallows to each lift. He has lifted his glass 360,000 times for 1.440.000 swallows, and will lift it another 240,000 times for 960,000 swallows to make a grand total of

600,000 lifts for 2,400,000 swallows

Stan, who lifts and replaces a pint six times with five swallows to each lift, has achieved 432,000 lifts for 2,160,000 swallows.

To reach 15,000 gallons he has still to lift his glass 288,000 times for 1,440,000 swallows. This will bring his grand total to 720,000 lifts for 3.600.000 swallows.

Both Rowley and Stan lift their glasses a distance of about 2ft from the bar to their mouths. The glasses travel another 2ft. in returning to the bar. This means that Rowley has lifted and set down his glass over a distance of 272.6 miles, and Stan 327.2 miles.

To drink 15,000 gallons Rowley will have to lift and set down his glass over a further distance of 181.8 miles. Stan 219.2 miles.

The grand total in terms of distance will then be Rowley, 454.4 miles; Stan, 546.4 miles.

– Sydney Daily Telegraph Sunday 15 February 1948

Stan and Rowley fell short of their 20,000 gallon target. Stan was the first to break the long drinking partnership with his death in 1965. He was 80. It’s not known whether Rowley continued drinking at the same place every afternoon without his life-long mate. If he did, he surely made a sad sight as one half of a lifelong partnership at the bar. Rowley died in 1967 at the age of 78.

Categories: Sydney hotels

Tags: name plates, Roly Collins, Stan Warren