By MICK ROBERTS © LEGEND has it that a there was once a pub that sat ‘slap-bang’ on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. As a consequence the outback pub, located at Hungerford, had its bar half in… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Bull in hotel at Nowra
SHORTLY after breakfast on New Year’s Day guests at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Nowra, received quite a shock when a man, leading a bull, calmly passed through, the luxuriously appointed lounge into the hotel yard. Some of the ladies present screamed, whilst other guests rubbed their… Read More ›
A Goat Stickybeaks
A GOAT caused some amusement at the Courthouse Hotel, Murwillumbah, on Wednesday morning. The animal walked into the lobby, gazed around inquiringly as though undecided whether to ask for a refresher or book a room. As an invitation by one of the ladies to… Read More ›
George Tory’s Kiama Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS & MICHELLE HOCTOR © KIAMA Inn is the oldest business in Kiama Municipality having operated from the same site – on the south-east corner of Terralong and Shoalhaven Streets – continuously since 1853. After Wollongong’s Harp Hotel,… Read More ›
Pub scrap album
PUBS often featured in the pages of newspapers, revealing a fascinating glimpse into the workings and culture of Australian communities and in particular working class men and women. Here are a selection: FOR 44 years she has served beer. In… Read More ›
Lady Luck & the pub roustabout
BILL Price fitted perfectly the profile of a pub roustabout, ‘boots’ or ‘useful’. A drifter, he did most odd jobs around the pubs where he worked in return for boarding and lodgings. He did jobs like tapping beer kegs or… Read More ›
The Bulli Creek Hotel
Yes… There’s another Bulli, besides in the Illawarra, NSW. Bulli Creek is located south west of Toowoomba in Queensland on the Darling Downs. And yes, there is also another Bulli pub, besides the Illawarra’s Heritage Hotel… Well, kind-of… Bulli Creek… Read More ›
Their barmaid will go to Munich
The Kings Head Hotel was located on the north-west corner of Elizabeth and Parks Streets, Sydney. It ceased trading on August 19 1972, and was demolished and replaced with an office tower. By Jacqueline Smith TO the regulars at… Read More ›
The publican and the reformed drunkard
MICK ROBERTS © WELL over six feet tall and solidly built, Andrew Lysaght was an imposing and colourful Illawarra publican pioneer. A magistrate, who resigned after a parliamentary inquiry found he called the Wollongong Police Sergeant an “old woman”, he wasn’t… Read More ›
Baby Farmers: Former publicans who murdered a dozen babies
By MICK ROBERTS © THE 19th century produced many notorious publicans. Arguably none though were as notorious as ‘baby farmers’, John and Sarah Makin, one time hosts of Wollongong’s Royal Alfred Hotel. John and Sarah Jane Makin were convicted in 1893 for… Read More ›