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 ›
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 ›
By MICK ROBERTS © ONCE a landmark on the lonely road from Bourke to Queensland, flames and controversy abruptly ended over 130 years of history at Barringun’s Tattersall’s Hotel. The original historic timber inn was tragically reduced to ashes on… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © BY the 1870s most Australian pubs were going by unimaginative names like the Royal or the Commercial. However, there was one Newcastle pub, which opened in 1877, that bucked the trend, and was given the tantalising… Read More ›
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 PUB in the New England region of NSW can arguably lay claim to having Australia’s youngest licensee. In fact, the publican was so young he was unable to drink in his own bar! During the 1930s a loophole in… Read More ›
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 ›
WHEN the International Hotel closed for business in 1928 there were 14 pubs trading in Armidale, on the NSW Northern Tablelands – a town with a population of between 6,000 and 7,000! Sadly now consigned to the pages of history,… Read More ›
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 ›
A MONTH-LONG high visibility police operations is underway focusing on social distancing and Public Health Order compliance in licensed premises, as pubs reopen across NSW today (Monday June 1). NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that hotels across the state will… Read More ›