By MICK ROBERTS © THE tamed applause from opera at a Ballina theatre, was replaced with the raucous shouting, laughter, and bawdy tunes of a pub in 1895. Where Gilbert and Sullivan’s lolanthe had entertained from the stage, beer suddenly… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Condobolin’s Royal Hotel has been serving up cold beers since 1886
THE magnificent art-deco Royal Hotel at Condobolin was nearly lost earlier in the year when it was closed for business. David Price, who has been licensee of the Royal since mid 2018, had different ideas though. He had been managing… Read More ›
Two resilient landladies, two remarkable women: Tattersall’s Hotel, Barringun
ONCE a landmark on the lonely road from Bourke to Queensland, flames and controversy have abruptly ended over 130 years of history at Barringun’s Tattersall’s Hotel. The original historic timber inn was tragically reduced to ashes on Christmas Eve 2017… Read More ›
How the Hidden Treasure Hotel got its name: A history of a Newcastle pub
BY the 1870s most Australian pubs were going by unimaginative names like the Royal and the Commercial. However, there was one Newcastle pub, which opened in 1877, that bucked the trend, and was given the tantalising sign of the Hidden Treasure Hotel…. Read More ›
Frightening tales from two wayside inns
The Midnight Prowler IT was dark when Burnett, and I pulled up at Sunder’s pub and asked the distance to Muralla. We had just finished a droving contract and were bound for that one-horse township to see if we could… Read More ›
A loophole allowed Attunga pub to have a 17-year-old licensee in 1939
THE Attunga pub, in the New England region of NSW, can lay claim to probably the youngest licensee in the state, if not Australia. The publican was so young in fact that he was unable to drink in his own… Read More ›
Tattersalls Hotel: The evolution of Armidale’s art-deco masterpiece
ELLEN Maccoy had the license of the House of All Nations at Rocky River transferred to Armidale (NSW) on April 27, 1858, opening the Wellington Inn on Beardy Street – the current site of the Tattersalls Hotel. The license has… Read More ›
Armidale’s International: Once popular with thirsty railwaymen, stock salesmen and drovers
SADLY relegated to the pages of history, the International Hotel was located in Niagara-street, Armidale, NSW. During the 1920s the freehold of the pub was owned by William Joseph Doyle. Arthur William Chapman was licensee when the hotel was forced… Read More ›
Melbourne chef brings fine dining to Sydney pub
WHILE many believe that the added attraction of fashionable eateries into Australian pubs is a new phenomenon, here’s a little “advertorial” from Sydney newspaper, Australian Star on August 8 1903, that would suggest otherwise. Here’s a picture which partly shows… Read More ›