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 ›
NSW hotels
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 ›
Singing publican drops dead on stage
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Dapto Agricultural Hall had a ‘full house’ on the evening of Wednesday October 6 1897. The enthusiastic audience had gathered in the small rural community, located in the Illawarra region, about 100km south of Sydney,… Read More ›
Roll-up, roll-up, a pub once owned by the circus: Ballina’s Occidental Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © SOME would describe rowdy nights at the pub – especially towards ‘last drinks’ – as a bit of a circus. So, it seems kind-of appropriate the matriarch of the famous Perry Brothers Circus, Mary Ellen Perry,… Read More ›
Outback sands reclaim ‘The Beer With No Pub’, at Yanco Glen
By MICK ROBERTS © SADLY the striking red sands and hardy outback desert shrubs have reclaimed where once the Yanco Glen Hotel served-up icey cold beers to weary travellers. Made nationally famous by the iconic promotional photograph of legendary country… Read More ›
Evolution of the Australian beer glass
From pint and long sleever, to pot, middy and schooner By MICK ROBERTS © THE ‘long sleever’ was an impressive looking beer glass that stood 45cm high and held an Imperial pint, or 20 fluid ounces. In colonial times, when… Read More ›
Knife wielding ‘lunatic’, suffering from ‘religious-mania’, ransacked Bulli pub
By MICK ROBERTS © A MAN discharged from a lunatic asylum caused headlines around the country when armed with a knife, he ransacked the Star of the Sea Hotel at Bulli, south of Sydney, in 1896. John Reynolds and his… Read More ›