WE realise Australia’s pubs have nothing on our British counterparts when it comes to age. However, the debate on Australia’s oldest pub never seems to end.
While the discussion rages over Australia’s ‘longest continuously licensed’, ‘oldest pub building’ and the like, we’ve put together a list of the country’s drinking holes that have an establishment date going back two centuries or more.
Australia has five pubs that we have identified as being around for 200 years or more (as at 2026).
The pubs we’ve featured here have all traded from the same site (with the exception of Parramatta’s Woolpack Hotel) for two centuries or more.
While these pubs haven’t necessarily continually traded for 200 years, and may have had intermediate closures since their establishment year, they all belong to an exclusive and rare club of pubs.
No Australian pub trading from the same site are older.
We’re reluctantly given an honourable mention and included the Woolpack Hotel in Parramatta, NSW in our exclusive 200 Club. The license of the hotel was granted in 1796, and was later relocated to new premises across the road in the 1890s.
Here are the five exclusive members of Time Gents’ 200 Club in order of their establishment year:
1. Woolpack, Parramatta NSW.
The Woolpack was one of the first 10 hotels licensed in Australia by Governor John Hunter, in May, 1796. Just over a century later it relocated to a new site on the opposite side of the road and is no longer is in its original building or on its original site. Read more HERE.
2. Hope & Anchor, Hobart, Tasmania.
The Hope and Anchor Tavern (formerly known as the Hope and Anchor Hotel, the Alexandra, the Whale Fishery, and simply the Hope) was established in 1807. The pub no longer trades in its original building having been rebuilt during the 19th century. The pub also closed in 2008 for refurbishment before reopening in 2014.
3. Macquarie Arms, Windsor, NSW.
Macquarie Arms opened to the public on July 31, 1815. The Macquarie Arms traded as a pub until 1835 when it was leased to the 50th West Kent Regiment as an officers’ mess. From 1840 the buildings was used as a private residence before it was again licensed as the Royal Hotel in 1874. It traded as the Royal Hotel until 1960 when the name reverted to the Macquarie Arms. The pub continues to trade in its original building. Read more HERE.
4. Central Hotel (Ship Inn), Hobart, Tasmania.
The Central Hotel was established as the Ship Inn at the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Street, Hobart in 1818 (some say earlier). The original building was demolished in 1882 and replaced with a bank. However, the Ship Hotel moved into a billiard room, that had operated beside the original pub, and although much altered and renovated, remains trading from that site to this day. Read more HERE.
* After further research, we added Hobart’s Central Hotel to our list in January 2026. We believe the former Ship Inn qualifies to be included in our exclusive ‘200 Club’. Feel free to suggest any other pubs that you believe should be on our list, and we’ll consider adding them to the ‘200 Club’.
5. Bush Inn, New Norfolk, Tasmania.
The Bush Inn opened on 29 September 1825. It closed as a hotel and was used as a private residence between the years 1873 and 1877. The Bush Inn remains in its original building on its original site. Read more HERE.
Do you have a pub you believe belongs on our list? Let us know if you know of a pub that has an establishment date going back 200 years or more and we will consider adding it our list and the exclusive ‘club’.
How many of Australia’s oldest pubs in this story have you visited? Scroll down to answer in the comments section.
* New research by Time Gents has established that the Rose & Crown at Parramatta (NSW), which was previously on our list, has been removed. Claims that the pub was established in 1823 as indicated on the hotel’s website cannot be substantiated. We are undertaking further research after finding early reports the Parramatta hotel was more than likely established in 1841. More to come…
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Categories: Australian Hotels
been to 3 of the top 5, Woolpack, Rose and crown (uaed to be my local) and Macquarie Arms when I lived in Bligh Park and South Windsor, wish I could see the rest of yhe list
For the main 200, apart from the rider ‘continuously licensed’ vs ‘established long ago’, there is the trap above the front door ‘established 1850s’, but of course replaced in the 1870s and again in the 1920s. Roderick Smith via Frank.