
The site of the Markets Hotel, at the corner of Quay Street and Ultimo Road, Haymarket. Photo: Google Streetview

The now demolished Markets Hotel C1920, the home of Kopke the talking albino crow.
“Six o’clock ! Get out !” No longer will that familiar squawk be lheard at a hotel near the Haymarket, for Kopke, the famous white crow, died yesterday.

Kopke the albino talking crow
Five years ago Kopke was presented to Mr. Norman Barrie, licensee of the hotel, by a Portuguese, who found the bird in Queensland. Mr. Barrie had refused £35 for it.
Yesterday Kopke was given a new cage, and people who plastered on it a notice, “For Sale, 30s,” little realised that it was the last joke to be played on the bird. Some say the shock of the new cage killed him, but others are inclined to blame a cigarette butt, found in the bird’s water can.
Kopke had a varied career, having been once run over by a lorry when he was being hosed in his cage in the middle of the street, and twice rallied without the owner’s knowledge. Although the bird would call “Get out!” Mr. Barrie had been trying to teach it to call “Come in!” The body will be cremated.
– The Sun (Sydney, NSW) Sunday 30 September 1934.
Categories: animals, NSW hotels, Sydney hotels
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