NOT many pubs can boast of their own private passenger train. Well, Bellambi Hotel on the NSW South Coast, can… The pub had its own train, which took guests to the beach. William Wilson, manager of the South Bulli Colliery… Read More ›
Illawarra Hotels
Bulli’s Railway Guest House to be restored and transformed
By MICK ROBERTS THE cellar’s sunk and the concrete slab laid in readiness for a new micro-brewery to be opened in a historic former guesthouse at Bulli on the NSW South Coast. While progress has been steady, the owners of… Read More ›
Wollongong’s hotel shortage: ‘Double banking’ and in some cases, beds have three shifts a day!
THE hotels in Wollongong, south of Sydney, went through a major transformation during the 1930s, following a population explosion after the establishment of Hoskins Iron and Steel Works at Port Kembla in 1927. The works, a few kilometres south of Wollongong,… Read More ›
Just a taste for 15 thirsty miners
Read the Time Gents’ story of the Save Yourself Club: Coal miners’ world beer drinking record: 15 men drink 600 gallons of beer in 15 days! 480 GALLONS OF BEER IN 12 DAYS WOLLONGONG, Monday: The 15 Corrimal miners who are trying… Read More ›
Three men slept in shifts in one bed over 24 hours! Wollongong’s hotel bed shortages
THE population of the Wollongong region exploded after Charles Hoskins entered into an agreement with the NSW Government to build a steelworks at Port Kembla in 1927. In 1936, BHP acquired Australian Iron and Steel Limited and production at Port Kembla increased rapidly… Read More ›
The Waterhouse family and Fairy Meadow’s Charles Hotel
THE misfortunes of a landmark pub in a town on the central-western plains of NSWÂ enabled the Charles Hotel at Fairy Meadow to open for business on September 15 1955. The Charles was built and established by the Waterhouse family, well-known… Read More ›
Pub customers’ loose change spurred the famous ‘Bulli Copper Derby’
By Syd Fairs* DURING the mid 1960s when middies of beer were nine cents and schooners a few cents more, customers generally left their copper change on the bars of local pubs where licensees usually donated this money to charity…. Read More ›
Publican takes it easy
Mr John Dorahy, president of the Illawarra branch of the U.L.V.A. (Later Australian Hotels Association), and licensee of the Wollongong Hotel, spent last Thursday ‘resting up,’ when employees at his hotel decided to join in a stoppage for 24 hours… Read More ›
Old Jimmy Woodser: The lone drinker
Jimmy Woodser is a name given to a man who drinks alone, or a drink consumed alone. The name is thought to come from a poem by Barcroft Boake, published in The Bulletin on May 7 1892, about a fictional… Read More ›