THE year before Olive Kathleen Cummins married she became the licensee of South Melbourne’s Caledonian Hotel at the age of 25. Olive was granted the license of her first pub, the Caledonian in 1919, and had a short stay after… Read More ›
Melbourne Hotels
Melbourne’s historic Mitre Tavern has served-up beer for over 150 years
LEGEND has it that Melbourne’s historic Mitre Tavern spawned the name of a well-known Australian hardware store. The story goes – well, according to the pub’s folklore – that two of the founding members of the hardware store, Mitre 10… Read More ›
Carlton’s United States Hotel publican charged with murder after shooting dead an intruder
THE publican of Carlton’s United States Hotel had endured four raids by thieves within nine months before shooting dead an intruder in May 1925. Publican John Maxwell O’Shea shot Henry ‘Pony’ Dodds while he was attempting to climb over the… Read More ›
The flash bars of Melbourne’s Royal Mail Hotel
The Royal Mail, Bourke and Swanston Streets, Melbourne CHARLES LEECH, Proprietor. THIS famous hotel is a notable landmark of Melbourne, and is one of the most popular houses of call in the city. Under the energetic guidance of the present… Read More ›
Melbourne hotelier, Jimmy Richardson
By MICK ROBERTS © A CANNY Scotsman with a reputation for being careful with his money, Jimmy Richardson, was one of Australia’s most successful hoteliers. Jimmy built an empire of Melbourne hotels, before selling them all – with the exception… Read More ›
Naked woman takes a dip in pub’s water trough
A WOMAN turned a few heads within the bar of the Richmond Club Hotel in Richmond, Victoria in 1891 when she plunged completely naked into the outside water trough. Today the horse drinking trough outside the Swan Street pub has… Read More ›
They learnt Australian ways
ACTU president Albert Monk joins the Soviet and Chinese delegates in a good old Australian custom — breasting the bar to enjoy a few middies of Melbourne’s famous beer. – Sydney Tribune July 11 1956
Flinders Street Angel Retires
By Malcolm Salmon MRS Gladys Ramsay retired on February 24 after 32 years behind the bar at the Great Britain Hotel at the waterfront end of Flinders Street, Melbourne. And a crowd of her wharfie regulars (above) turned up to… Read More ›
Pluto arrives in Melbourne
THEY LOOK EXTRA GOOD These pots have an extra good look about them, but don’t be hopeful. Picture shows a new beer servicing device known as “Pluto” in use in a Melbourne hotel. It consists of six feet of transparent… Read More ›