Author Archives
A journalist, writer and historian, Mick Roberts specialises in Australian cultural history, particularly associated with Australian pubs. Mick has had an interest in revealing the colourful story of Australian hotels or pubs and associated industries for over 35 years. Besides writing a number of history books, Mick has managed several community newspapers. Editorially, he has managed 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 reported for Rural Press, Cumberland (News Limited), City Hub Sydney (City News), and Torch Publications (based in Canterbury Bankstown, Sydney).
-
Sydney’s ‘oldest wharfie’ worked the docks at Millers Point at the age of 91
SYDNEY’S oldest wharf laborer, who works at 91, attributes his long life and good health to “plenty work and plenty beer.” He is John ‘Scotty’ Steele, Dargnan-street, Glebe, who was born nine miles from Glasgow in 1855. He presents himself… Read More ›
-
Central West NSW Road Trip: The pubs of Canowindra
By MICK ROBERTS © WE ended our 2018 road trip to the former gold mining villages and towns of central west NSW by calling into historic Canowindra, located between Orange and Cowra. Where the town’s pubs trade is the curving main street, which… Read More ›
-
Women have their say on later pub closing: Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills
THE Daily Telegraph visited a number of Sydney pubs, including Surry Hills’ iconic Hollywood Hotel, in 1954, reporting on how women were finally infiltrating the harbour city’s bars. Besides the Hollywood, the newspaper called into the Newcastle Hotel in George… Read More ›
-
Sydney’s majestic nude painting left ‘Chloe for dead’ at Sydney’s Newcastle Hotel
THE bars of Jim Buckley’s Newcastle Hotel, in Sydney’s CBD, were adorned with artwork. Most of the available wall space inside the pub, which was home to Sydney’s more creative drinkers, was hung with artwork. Buckley had the the pub,… Read More ›
-
Road trip: A visit to central west NSW and the Cargo Inn
CONTINUING our road trip to the former gold mining towns of central west NSW, we left the Railway Hotel at Spring Hill for the charm of another single storey brick pub, the Cargo Inn. The drive from Spring Hill, via… Read More ›
-
Warwick Farm Hotel’s roustabout found dead on rail lines after £30,000 inheritance
By MICK ROBERTS © A drifter, William Price did most odd jobs around the pubs where he worked in return for boarding and lodgings. He tapped beer barrels, collected glasses, cleaned toilets, and emptied ashtrays. His job was often labelled as… Read More ›
-
Road Trip: Railway Hotel, Spring Hill
I RECKON it’s more than appropriate that a bloke who watched the first passenger train in NSW puff its way between Sydney and Granville in 1855 names his pub the Railway Hotel. Among the thousands of Sydneysiders who gathered to… Read More ›
-
Road Trip: Forest Reef Tavern
By Mick Roberts © ESTABLISHED on the back of mining and the thirsts it created, there’s a pub about 20kms from Orange, in central west NSW that survives from those heady days when gold raised the hopes of many, and… Read More ›
-
Lismore Hotel’s ‘buxom brunette’ banned ‘bar-drinkers’ during the war years
Marie Joan Keighery finally got fed-up of drinkers ‘hogging’ the bar of her Sydney pub during the war years when beer was short and pubs often sold-out before the end of the day. The host of the Lismore Hotel in… Read More ›
-
Commodore Hotel named after Billy Blue, Sydney puntman and ‘first American migrant’ to Australia
THERE’S a modern looking pub trading at McMahon’s Point, North Sydney that gives no indication of its interesting connection with Colonial Sydney. John Blue was granted a “new license” for a two-storey sandstone inn on March 7 1854. He named… Read More ›