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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The adventures of Bluey & Curley in our Australian pubs
A POPULAR Australian newspaper comic strip during the war years, ‘Bluey and Curley’ was written by artist, caricaturist, and cartoonist Alex Gurney. Gurney was renowned for his generous habit of giving the original art work of his caricatures, cartoons, and… Read More ›
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Road Trip: The pubs of the O’Connell Plains
Note: The venues on this Road Trip were visited before ‘The Great Pub Lockdown’ on March 23 2020. The O’Connell Hotel and Tarana Hotel remain open for take away food only (check venues for days and times), while the Alexander… Read More ›
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Three Western Australian publicans from the past
Bob Connell Burlington Hotel, Bunbury Mine host of the remodelled Burlington Hotel, in Victoria-street, Bunbury, Bob has proved one of the most effective workers in the interests of the town and district. No man is better versed in the potentialities and the… Read More ›
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Assembly Hotel, Sydney: Proud beauty scorns the demon rum
YOU can see Sydney’s only religious cockatoo any time in the saloon bar of the Assembly Hotel, Phillip-street. The cockatoo, called Smith, lives there, but he — Refuses alcohol of any kind, and cannot be tricked. He is shown turning… Read More ›
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David Fitch, publican, mayor and sportsman: The Court House Hotel, Narromine
For many years, during the early part of the 20th century, the Court House Hotel at Narromine, a town located about 40 kilometres west of Dubbo in the central west of New South Wales, was known simply as ‘Fitch’s’. The… Read More ›
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The pub named after a lone gum on a clay pan: The One Tree Hotel
Located between Hay and Booligal on Cobb Highway in NSW is the famous and historic One Tree Hotel. The hotel was built in 1862 by Alexander Finch. Originally known as Finch Inn, it was renamed the One Tree Hotel later… Read More ›
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Spanish influenza pandemic closed Sydney’s pubs for almost a month in 1919
BETWEEN January and September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the ‘Spanish Flu’, killed 6,387 people in New South Wales, infecting as many as 290,000 in Metropolitan Sydney alone. The pandemic threw the people and Government of the State… Read More ›
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Road trip: Rydal Pub host tells the ‘chilling’ tale of his shortened bar
Coming soon: Time Gents’ next road trip takes us to the Lithgow region of NSW, where we visit three beaut bush pubs – The O’Connell Hotel, O’Connell, Tarana Hotel, Tarana, and the Alexander Hotel, Rydal. We chat with two of… Read More ›
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Zandra the pub nude made Chloe look like ‘an elderly spinster in a red flannel negligee’
EVERYONE knows Chloe the famous ‘goil – in – oils’ at Young and Jackson’s Melbourne bar. Now in Perth (a short priced city in any pulchritude contest) she’s got a rival. And I mean rival. She’s Zandra, a finely-executed nude… Read More ›
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