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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Two resilient landladies, two remarkable women: Tattersall’s Hotel, Barringun
ONCE a landmark on the lonely road from Bourke to Queensland, flames and controversy have abruptly ended over 130 years of history at Barringun’s Tattersall’s Hotel. The original historic timber inn was tragically reduced to ashes on Christmas Eve 2017… Read More ›
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How the Hidden Treasure Hotel got its name: A history of a Newcastle pub
BY the 1870s most Australian pubs were going by unimaginative names like the Royal and the Commercial. However, there was one Newcastle pub, which opened in 1877, that bucked the trend, and was given the tantalising sign of the Hidden Treasure Hotel…. Read More ›
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Queen’s Hotel, Mossman
A COUNTRY HOTEL M.A. Tyrell’s Hotel at the Mossman, Port Douglas. (Photo by H. C. P. Crees.) One of the rising localities of North Queensland is the Mossman River in the locality of Port Douglas. Here the rich river flats… Read More ›
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Carlton’s United States Hotel publican charged with murder after shooting dead an intruder
THE publican of Carlton’s United States Hotel had endured four raids by thieves within nine months before shooting dead an intruder in May 1925. Publican John Maxwell O’Shea shot Henry ‘Pony’ Dodds while he was attempting to climb over the… Read More ›
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Frightening tales from two wayside inns
The Midnight Prowler IT was dark when Burnett, and I pulled up at Sunder’s pub and asked the distance to Muralla. We had just finished a droving contract and were bound for that one-horse township to see if we could… Read More ›
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Policeman shot dead in bar of Perth’s Brisbane Hotel
NOW a popular pub in the Perth inner city suburb of Highgate, the Brisbane Hotel has traded for over 120 years. The pub, located at the corner of Brisbane and Beaufort Streets, was established in 1898. In recent years, the… Read More ›
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A loophole allowed Attunga pub to have a 17-year-old licensee in 1939
THE Attunga pub, in the New England region of NSW, can lay claim to probably the youngest licensee in the state, if not Australia. The publican was so young in fact that he was unable to drink in his own… Read More ›
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Tattersalls Hotel: The evolution of Armidale’s art-deco masterpiece
ELLEN Maccoy had the license of the House of All Nations at Rocky River transferred to Armidale (NSW) on April 27, 1858, opening the Wellington Inn on Beardy Street – the current site of the Tattersalls Hotel. The license has… Read More ›
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Armidale’s International: Once popular with thirsty railwaymen, stock salesmen and drovers
SADLY relegated to the pages of history, the International Hotel was located in Niagara-street, Armidale, NSW. During the 1920s the freehold of the pub was owned by William Joseph Doyle. Arthur William Chapman was licensee when the hotel was forced… Read More ›
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