Author Archives
A newspaper journalist, writer and local historian, Mick Roberts specialises in Australian cultural history, particularly associated with the Australian hotel and liquor industry. Mick has had an interest in revealing the colourful story of pubs, inns and associated industries in the Sydney and Illawarra regions of NSW for over 30 years. He is currently working on a comprehensive history of the hotel and liquor industry in the Illawarra region of NSW. Besides authoring a number of history books, Mick has owned and operated several community newspapers. He was one time editor of the Wollongong Northern News, The Bulli Times, The Northern Times, The Northern Leader and The Local - all located in the Wollongong region. As a journalist he has worked for Rural Press, Cumberland (News Limted), Sydney based, City News, and is now with Torch Publications.
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Blackbirder established the Queen’s Hotel on the Brisbane River wharves
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Queen’s Hotel, opposite the wharves on the Brisbane River, was a favourite haunt of sailors and the men working on the docks. And, no wonder. The pub sat opposite a small reserve dominated by a… Read More ›
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Road trip: The pubs of Queensland’s Cassowary Coast
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE were plenty of pleasurable pubs to visit and review on our 145km road trip south from Cairns to Feluga late last year. There’s the pub in the sugarcane-fields at Garradunga, said to be haunted by… Read More ›
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Time to reduce beer tax to help pubs recover from Covid lock downs
AS other countries cut their beer tax to help the hospitality industry recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia’s tariff continues to rise twice a year. The UK Government has announced it will slash draught beer tax, whilst Australia surges up… Read More ›
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Olive’s three ‘petticoat pubs’ were run entirely by women
THE year before Olive Kathleen Cummins married she became the licensee of South Melbourne’s Caledonian Hotel at the age of 25. Olive was granted the license of her first pub, the Caledonian in 1919, and had a short stay after… Read More ›
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Thief found asleep in the bar of Camperdown pub after helping himself to a bottle of whiskey
A FEW hours after he broke into the cellar of the Grose Farm Hotel, Joseph Byrnes was found asleep in the bar after polishing of a bottle of whiskey and two bottles of wine. Byrnes, who was almost totally deaf… Read More ›
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Old Billy Fitzpatrick called the Harp Hotel his local for 65 years
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Harp Hotel was old Billy Fitzpatrick’s second home. The retired baker had been a ‘regular’ at the pub, in the Illawarra region of NSW, for 64 years when he was photographed enjoying a noggin of… Read More ›
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Regents Park Hotel: The Publican verse the Salvationist
By MICK ROBERTS © One of the more notorious incidents in almost a century of trading at the Regents Park Hotel in Sydney’s west was when the publican booted out a Salvation Army officer, who was collecting donations and selling… Read More ›
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Hides Hotel: How the O’Haras lost their Cairns Hotel legacy
By MICK ROBERTS © THE O’Hara family just couldn’t shake the legacy of their predecessors. Despite the Hides not building or hosting the landmark hotel at the corner of Lake and Shields Streets, in the northern Queensland city of Cairns,… Read More ›
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Double jabbed beer drinkers rewarded with a free glass by Lion
A NATIONAL initiative to reward double-jabbed Australians with a free glass of beer when pub doors safely reopen has been announced by Furphy and parent-company Lion. As a way to boost jabs in arms throughout the country and in line… Read More ›