KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOUR NEVER HAD A DRINK Former fight champion Frank Kirwan (pictured), for 29 years head barman at the Esplanade Hotel’s front bar, has never had a drink of beer in his life. Yet, today, with all the enthusiasm… Read More ›
barmen
Wagga Wagga pub cocky sinks a middy a day
Curley Elphick, barman at a Wagga Wagga hotel (NSW), photographed with his pet cockatoo, which drinks a middy of beer a day. Picture: The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) Friday 20 October 1950. Subscribe to the latest Time Gents’ stories OR TIP… Read More ›
Hec calls the tune
In this age of TV and large scale entertainment, there’s one hotel in Ballarat (Victoria) which has solved the problem of entertaining customers with a one-man show. It’s the Athletic Club Hotel, where barman Hec Stephens (pictured) plays a toy… Read More ›
Melbourne-Sydney rivalry extended to the bar-room, with beer-pouring challenge
TWO Sydney barmaids — Billie Williams and Gladys Henwood — were not impressed by Melbourne’s champion beer puller, Cyril O’Brien, who boasted he could serve 1000 customers in an hour at the Windsor Hotel. Newspapers across the country reported in… Read More ›
Barmen are disappearing from Perth pubs
The Feminine Touch Is Taking Over PERTH’S barmen are a gradually disappearing race with the majority of city hotels employing a greater number of barmaids. There are not many unions which can claim the same wages for a woman as… Read More ›
There’s a fly in my soup… I mean, beer!
YOU know that old saying: “Waiter there’s a fly in my soup”? Here’s an Aussie twist to it. This cartoon was first published in the good ol’ Bulletin (God bless its soul), and reproduced in a swag of newspapers at… Read More ›
Keep Barmaids Young Smart & Cheerful
NSW politician Les Jordan caused a stir in 1954 when he suggested that barmaids should be dressed in black and be over 60. The Country Party (forerunner of today’s National Party) MLA was commenting on one of the provisions of… Read More ›
Oddities Among Australia’s Outback Inns
By BILL BEATTY DESERTED homesteads in the outback country are by no means uncommon, but a deserted hotel – fully furnished – is a novelty, at least in these days. Yet there is such a hotel near the old mining township… Read More ›
Beer by lamp light
Perth, Western Australia had major electricity loss following a breakdown at the East Perth power house in May 1946. Householders received only intermittent electricity supplies, while there was no general supplies for city shops and businesses for days. “A city… Read More ›