A RECENT news item tells that at a Grafton (NSW) hotel the barman keeps frogs in the bar in order to keep the place free from cockroaches. This recalls the fact that many country publicans have a wide variety of attractions in order to… Read More ›
Publicans
A mass murdering publican and punting at the Royal Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © WAY before pokies and TAB machines, pub drinkers found other means to gamble, and try their luck at winning a ‘quid’ or two. Cards, dice, billiards, bagatelle and other illegal lures were often used by publicans… Read More ›
Regents Park Hotel, Regents Park
Salvationist Arrested: Hotel Scene Lidcombe police yesterday charged a Salvation Army captain with “disorderly conduct” at the Regents Park hotel. The publican, Mr. Eric McLean, asked police to make the charge after the captain had gone into the hotel with… Read More ›
War time pub drinking: A glass by candlelight and beer shortages
Limits were placed on beer production by the Australian Government in March 1942, requiring breweries to reduce their output to two-thirds of previous levels. The resulting beer shortages led to widespread profiteering and black-marketing in some parts of Australia, including… Read More ›
The Floyds: Illawarra’s beef & beer barons
By MICK ROBERTS © FOR over a century beef and beer were synonymous with the Floyd family name. Four generations of Floyds were successful butchers and hoteliers in the northern region of the Illawarra, south of Sydney, leaving a legacy… Read More ›
Donkey Jack’s 30 year drinking spree
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 ›
Sutherland’s Railway Hotel, where half-naked, drunken men ‘fought like tigers’, their ‘disfigured faces bruised and torn’
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 ›
The tragic tale of Sam Russell and his Sydney and Wollongong pubs
By MICK ROBERTS © SAM Russell just wasn’t cut out to be a businessman. To be fair, he had to struggle through the economic depression of the 1840s, but the fact remains Lady Luck just wasn’t on the merchant’s side… Read More ›
The North Gong Pub: From wayside inn to imposing tourist hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © ALTHOUGH the North Wollongong Hotel has changed considerably in appearance since German immigrant, Theodore Bode opened his little wayside inn on the site in 1878 its principal purpose of providing hospitality remains unchanged. Now a favourite… Read More ›
The Urwins, pub managers: Headlands Hotel
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 ›