Author Archives
A journalist, writer and historian, Mick Roberts specialises in Australian cultural history, particularly associated with the Australian pubs. Mick has had an interest in revealing the colourful story of Australian hotels or pubs and associated industries for over 30 years. Besides writing a number of history books, Mick has managed several community newspapers. Now semi-retired, he has edited 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 Limited), City Hub Sydney (City News), and Torch Publications (based in Canterbury Bankstown, Sydney).
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The mysterious Jim Cavill and his Surfers Paradise Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © WHAT could be a more fitting story for Surfers Paradise then the rags-to-riches tale of a barber, who rose to become one of Queensland’s most successful businessmen through clever exaggeration, media manipulation and showmanship? James Freeman… Read More ›
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We’re entering our 10th year! Here’s the top 10 stories over the past decade
WE’RE entering our 10th year of publication! Who would have thought it’s been a decade since ‘Time Gents, Australian Pub Project’ began bringing you the colourful yarns, our road trips and stories about this country’s wonderful watering holes. To mark… Read More ›
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The White Horses of Newtown & St Peters: Three pubs with a rich & sometimes dark history
By MICK ROBERTS © WHITE Horse Inn owner and coach operator, Jimmy Richardson reportedly faked a gold strike at Newtown during 1852, attracting hundreds of fortune-seekers to the sparsely settled township less than six kilometres from Sydney. Richardson’s coaching company… Read More ›
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Changes afoot at one of Newtown’s oldest pubs: Looking back at the Milton Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © WITH a few changes in the wind after the sale of Newtown’s Kuleto’s Bar to well-known Sydney publican, William Ryan, Time Gents takes a look back at the colourful history of one of the suburb’s oldest… Read More ›
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Long awaited re-opening of Sydney’s Abercrombie Hotel: A 180 year history continues
By MICK ROBERTS © ON the eve of the long-awaited reopening of the Abercrombie Hotel on Sydney’s Broadway, Time Gents takes a look at its history, spanning back over 180 years as a much-loved Sydney watering hole. The hotel, located… Read More ›
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The Plasto pubs: Four Sydney publican brothers, Frank, Bob, Reg and Len
By MICK ROBERTS © BESIDES boasting a large and profitable pub portfolio, the Plasto family were the darlings of Sydney’s social-set for over 40 years. During the 1930s through to the 1960s, the family were rarely out of the newspapers’… Read More ›
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The Plough Inn, Ashfield: An old Sydney roadside inn
By Walter E. Bethel* BUILT in the early 1830s, and originally known as ‘Speed the Plough’, the Plough Inn at the junction of Parramatta and Liverpool roads, Ashfield, was one of the best known of the wayside hostelries between Sydney… Read More ›
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Huge ‘croc’ captivated visitors at Emu Park’s Pine Beach Hotel for decades
By MICK ROBERTS © THE unique central and north Queensland tendency of displaying stuffed crocodiles in pubs is said to have originated in Rockhampton, where the reptiles were once common, and fearless hunters were always on the ready to supply… Read More ›
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Broome’s Continental Hotel was established by Filipino pearler
By MICK ROBERTS © NOT many pubs could claim a ‘king’ as their ‘yardman’. Broome’s Continental Hotel in the Kimberley region of Western Australia has that distinction. Aboriginal elder, ‘King Mackie’ was the ‘boots’ or ‘roustabout’ at the Continental Hotel… Read More ›