By Mick Roberts © ESTABLISHED on the back of mining and the thirsts it created, there’s a pub about 20kms from Orange, in central west NSW that survives from those heady days when gold raised the hopes of many, and… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Botany’s Waterworks Hotel joined Sydney’s ‘150 club’ in 2018
THE Waterworks Hotel at Botany reached a significant milestone in 2018 when it joined a select number of Sydney pubs that have marked 150 years of trade. Named after the nearby Sydney Waterworks, which was established in 1858, the little… Read More ›
Like old times: Royal Hotel, Lismore
LIKE OLD TIMES – At about midday on Thursday, a young man drove up to the front of the Royal Hotel, in Molesworth Street, Lismore, got out of the sulky, took the horse out and tied him up to the… Read More ›
Sydney’s stolen beer glass epidemic: Over 180,000 glasses a week disappeared from the city’s 600 pubs in 1944
DURING the 1940s, Sydney’s pubs was suffering a persisting problem with customers stealing beer glasses. The problem had been around for decades, but the curious practice of ‘souveniring’ beer glasses from Sydney’s pubs had become a major headache for publicans… Read More ›
In the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon: Imperial Hotel, Milson’s Point
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Imperial Hotel at Milson’s Point started life as the Cornish Arms when John Whitford was granted a license in April 1844. Thirty-five-year old Dind, his wife, Eliza, 34, and their 12-year-old son, William Jnr, moved… Read More ›
Road trip: Morpeth’s Commercial Hotel was operated by four sisters for 15 years
By MICK ROBERTS © OUR 2018 road trip to the Hunter Valley, included a visit to the grand old Commercial Hotel at Morpeth. There seems to have been two Commercial Hotels trading in Morpeth, the first licensed by Moses Murphy in… Read More ›
How Casino’s Charcoal Inn got its name
THERE’S a pub in the Northern Rivers region of NSW that has an intriguing sign. The Charcoal Inn at Casino, about 30kms from Lismore, was built in the middle of last century. But like many Australian pubs, she’s been rebuilt… Read More ›
Pub has traded on the corner for 160 years: Covent Gardens Hotel, Haymarket
There’s been a pub trading at the corner of Hay and Dixon Streets in Sydney’s Haymarket for well over 150 years. Way before the Covent Gardens Hotel was established on the site, a pub by the name of the Miller’s… Read More ›
Customers of ‘Limit Jim’ allowed only two to four drinks at Tabulam Hotel
IF you were planning to get plastered on the grog at Jim Jordan’s pub, you chose the wrong bar. The publican of Tabulam Hotel, in the far north-east of NSW, between Tenterfield and Casino, was known as ‘Limit Jim’. Jim,… Read More ›
Grave robber’s macabre deal on the verandah of East Maitland’s Victoria Inn
By MICK ROBERTS © EAST Maitland’s Victoria Inn, west of Newcastle in the Hunter Valley, has had many incarnations since its original construction. Its most recent manifestation in 2015 has been a labour of love for James Morgan, who restored the… Read More ›