The priest and the publican By MICK ROBERTS © THE friendly contest of chaffing – perfected and usually kept within the bar-room – spilled outside onto one of Sydney’s busiest streets during the 1980s. Chaffing – the pleasure of teasing… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Notorious Sydney wharfies’ pub, the Bristol Arms
By MICK ROBERTS © SYDNEY’S remaining wharfie pubs are far and few between, where brawls were common, and thirsts were big. Down on Sussex Street, towards Darling Harbour, can be found a pub from that era, although its ‘bloodhouse’ days,… Read More ›
McConkey’s Bodalla Hotel
A pub filled with history McCONKEY’S Hotel has been a landmark at Bodalla [on the NSW South Coast] for many years, and is overflowing with history. Established in 1875 and owned by The Bodalla (Pastoral) Company until the 1930s… Read More ›
Gollan Hotel’s Royal stay
The Queen waving a greeting from the balcony of the Hotel Gollan, Lismore to the wildly enthusiastic crowds in the street below. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent Tuesday night at the Hotel Gollan. – Warwick Daily News Thursday February 11 1954. WHO would have… Read More ›
Beer and bustle don’t mix
In London in 1750 the gin shop signs used to announce that you could get “drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence.” In Sydney in 1946, due to the tempo of drinking, you can get drunk on four pots,… Read More ›
Where beer was thicker than blood
By Henry McCarthy THE licensee of the Amos Hotel in Newcastle employed his sister as a barmaid and, because he believed that blood was thicker than beer, refused to put her in the union. He told the other barmaids who… Read More ›
Bondi pub drinkers rally for war bonds
The sale of war bonds was a significant aspect of the Australian home front during the Second World War. Administered by the Commonwealth War Loan Office, the war loans scheme encouraged Australians to buy war bonds which would mature… Read More ›
Newcastle’s three ‘Great Northerns’
The current Great Northern Hotel at Newcastle opened in 1938. It’s the third hotel of the same name to occupy the site, its predecessors having been in operation since 1864. The hotel was designed by Sydney architects Rudder and Grout and built… Read More ›
War time beer shortages
Thousands rush beer at suburban hotel Four thousand people gathered yesterday afternoon at the Imperial Hotel, Milson’s Point – one of the few hotels open in Sydney. The hotel served English beer at a shilling and six pence a pint…. Read More ›
Door of Lidcombe’s Royal Oak Hotel, marked with horse racing bets, removed for evidence by police
POLICE TAKE HOTEL DOOR IT was a little draughty in the bar of the Royal Oak Hotel one Saturday afternoon last century after a police raid. Quite a stir was caused when police arrived with a tool kit at the… Read More ›