The Criterion was built in 1903 by James Jones, an experienced hotelier who had run a number of hotels in Newcastle and Sydney prior to setting his sights on Kurri Kurri to establish business. Jim was licensee of the Terminus and… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Aberdare Hotel, Weston
THE Aberdare Hotel at Weston, NSW, was built by Englishman, John Champion who came to Australia at the age of 21 in 1876. Champion was coal miner, who later went into business, hosting the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle Hotel… Read More ›
Bulli’s 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 ›
Club Hotel, Surry Hills
By MICK ROBERTS © JOHN Ahern was enjoying a few after-work drinks in the upstairs parlour of Surry Hill’s Club Hotel, singing and socialising, before his brutal death in 1893. Barman, Tom Moss, who later became publican, explained at the… Read More ›
Harp of Erin, East Sydney
THIS interesting old building, at the corner of Stanley Lane and Riley Street in East Sydney, traded as the Harp of Erin Hotel for almost 50 years. The three ‘harps’ on the facade are the give-away that the building, currently… Read More ›
Kosciuszko Hotel, Mt Kosciuszko
Kosciuszko Hotel in a picturesque setting, with the freshly fallen snow glistening in the morning sunshine, 1937. Photo: The Brisbane Telegraph.
Tilpa’s two pubs
THE pub at Tilpa has more than a century of stories under its belt; although none can top that of the man who built the single storey tin and timber wayside stop, late in the 19th century. Known to… Read More ›
Before The Cross there was Wynyard
LONG before Kings Cross gained the reputation as Sydney’s number one trouble spot for drunken behaviour, which lead to the controversial lock-out laws, the streets around Wynyard earned a similar status. Police described Wynyard “one of the most undignified public… Read More ›
Died after a boom…
IT is difficult to find a place in Australia where there is not someone, who, at some time or other, has been connected in some way, with the old mining village of Hill End (NSW). This is not to be… Read More ›
Metropolitan Hotel, Paddington
By MICK ROBERTS © James Alfred Saunders opened the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the corner of Underwood and McGarvie Streets at Paddington in 1881. A magnificent building, it survives today as the E.J. Ward Paddington Community Centre. There are many stories… Read More ›