By MICK ROBERTS © COMPARED by one 19th century scribe to Shakespeare’s Caliban from the Tempest, the legendary Donkey Jack was Wollongong’s best known drunk. Of all the drunken characters who frequented the Illawarra – and there were many –… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © ABOUT the same time as the Corrimal Hotel opened for business on the NSW South Coast almost 120 years ago, quite a lot of excitement was being created by “a small coterie of feminine busybodies” to… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © A drifter, William Price did most odd jobs around the pubs where he worked in return for boarding and lodgings. He did jobs like tapping beer kegs or barrels, to collecting glasses, cleaning toilets, and emptying… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © RELIGIOUSLY, during most of the first half of last century, a steady stream of men could be seen crossing the road, backwards and forwards, from Bulli’s Family Hotel to the billiard and hairdressing saloon, on Saturdays…. Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © AMERICA’S Wild West could be considered tame compared to the wilderness separating what is today Sydney’s southern suburbs from the Illawarra region, during the mid to late 1880s. Notorious shantytowns sprang up in the bushland to… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE workers camps that sprang up for the men building the government railway south of Sydney during the mid to late 1880s became notorious for their violence and heavy drinking. The camps, which also included men… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © IN the days when the two big breweries ruled the liquor industry, owning most of New South Wales’ hotels, and ‘tying’ clubs and pubs to exclusive beer sales, Bob and Lurline Urwin made quite a name… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Newnhams were linked to arguably Australia’s most famous brewery, so a drunken church warden making a scene at one of the three brewers’ funeral in 1862, was a likely epitaph to their largely untold story…. Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © OFTEN overlooked in the pages of history, women played a pivotal role in the day to day functioning of Australian inns and hotels. The wives of pioneering publicans were often young and their duties were physically… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © MISSING trays of glassware and boxes of spirits, mysteriously turning-up later, cutlery re-arranged in the dining room, locked doors found wide open, eerie taps on the shoulder, and weird sounds throughout the middle of the night,… Read More ›