By MICK ROBERTS © THE 19th century produced many notorious publicans. Arguably none though were as notorious as ‘baby farmers’, John and Sarah Makin, one time hosts of Wollongong’s Royal Alfred Hotel. John and Sarah Jane Makin were convicted in 1893 for… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THREATENED with demolition during the 1990s and described by the hopeful developer at the time as worthless of preservation, the ‘Fountain on the Mountain’ – the Balgownie Hotel, through a concerted community effort, survived to celebrate… Read More ›
Illawarra Mercury Thursday 8 December 1949: Hotel bars in the Illawarra district were closed on Thursday owing to the one day stop work meeting of members of the Hotels and Restaurant Employees’ Union. For publicans’ wives and families it was one of the busiest days on record,… Read More ›
BUSINESS identities, Rube and Jack Hargrave took over the management of the Imperial Hotel at Clifton, north of Wollongong, in 1956. The husband and wife team operated the cliff side pub in the Illawarra region of NSW for 17 years… Read More ›
HERE’S a yarn from the annals of Bulli’s old Denmark Hotel. The pub traded on the NSW South Coast from 1877 to 1911. On Boxing Day 1901, the local member of parliament, John Barnes Nicholson “dropped” into the the pub… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © WAY before pokies and TAB machines, pub drinkers found other means to gamble, and try their luck at winning a ‘quid’ or two. Cards, dice, billiards, bagatelle and other illegal lures were often used by publicans… Read More ›
DURING the 1920s and 30s, a pub on the NSW South Coast became the centre of social life for coal miners in the little town of Bulli. The Bulli Family Hotel, now trading as the Heritage Hotel, opened for business… Read More ›
BILLY Fitzpatrick of Market Square, went to work with the City’s milkman, Charlie Price, at the same age that he became a regular at the Harp Hotel *.He earned 2/6 a week.“I walked from house to house, carrying four gallons… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © LONG before the Sydney Push met in pubs around the harbour city, a group of “theatrical types, well primed with soda and a dash” paved the way for artists by reciting poetry and “warbling” songs in… Read More ›
Limits were placed on beer production by the Australian Government in March 1942, requiring breweries to reduce their output to two-thirds of previous levels. The resulting beer shortages led to widespread profiteering and black-marketing in some parts of Australia, including… Read More ›