By MICK ROBERTS © THIS Time Gents’ road trip took us from the city of Sydney over the Blue Mountains into the green valleys west of Oberon and the O’Connell Plains, where we visited three special pubs, and interviewed two… Read More ›
NSW hotels
Assembly Hotel, Sydney: Proud beauty scorns the demon rum
YOU can see Sydney’s only religious cockatoo any time in the saloon bar of the Assembly Hotel, Phillip-street. The cockatoo, called Smith, lives there, but he — Refuses alcohol of any kind, and cannot be tricked. He is shown turning… Read More ›
David Fitch, publican, mayor and sportsman: The Court House Hotel, Narromine
For many years, during the early part of the 20th century, the Court House Hotel at Narromine, a town located about 40 kilometres west of Dubbo in the central west of New South Wales, was known simply as ‘Fitch’s’. The… Read More ›
The pub named after a lone gum on a clay pan: The One Tree Hotel
Located between Hay and Booligal on Cobb Highway in NSW is the famous and historic One Tree Hotel. The hotel was built in 1862 by Alexander Finch. Originally known as Finch Inn, it was renamed the One Tree Hotel later… Read More ›
Pubs also defied government health orders during 1919 Spanish influenza pandemic
THE 2020/21 Covid-19 pandemic is not the first time an infectious disease has forced the closure of Australian pubs. Between January and September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the ‘Spanish Flu’, killed 6,387 people in NSW, infecting as many… Read More ›
Road trip: Rydal Pub host tells the ‘chilling’ tale of his shortened bar
Coming soon: Time Gents’ next road trip takes us to the Lithgow region of NSW, where we visit three beaut bush pubs – The O’Connell Hotel, O’Connell, Tarana Hotel, Tarana, and the Alexander Hotel, Rydal. We chat with two of… Read More ›
Bert the navvy could out-swear a bullocky
NAVVY WHO OUTSWORE BULLOCKIES CLEARED HOTEL IN FIVE MINUTES CONST. AMAZED NEWCASTLE. Monday. HERBERT GAMBLE, laborer, walked into the public bar of the Great Northern Hotel on Saturday afternoon. Within five minutes it was empty. In the words of Constable… Read More ›
Plaza Hotel, Sydney had the first fully automated glass washing machine in NSW
THE first automated glass-washing machine in New South Wales, and the second in Australia, was installed in the bar of the Plaza Hotel, above Wynyard Railway Station, George Street, Sydney in 1946. When Plaza Hotel manager, Alphonse Parer switched on… Read More ›
Coal miners’ world beer drinking record: 15 men drink 600 gallons of beer in 15 days!
By MICK ROBERTS © A SOCIAL club, made-up of coal miners, caused quite a stir when they set-up camp at what they named “Froth Blowers Retreat” at Towradgi Beach, just north of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of NSW, for… Read More ›
Body of forward thinking hotelier exhumed after suspicious death
The death of pioneering publican Reg Tolley By MICK ROBERTS © THE suspicious death of a publican – who at the time was making pioneering improvements in the way Australians were drinking in pubs – made headlines around the country… Read More ›