A pub filled with history McCONKEY’S Hotel has been a landmark at Bodalla [on the NSW South Coast] for many years, and is overflowing with history. Established in 1875 and owned by The Bodalla (Pastoral) Company until the 1930s… Read More ›
Publicans
Exchange Hotel, Pingelly
WHEELBARROW BUG BITES PINGELLY FOR A £10 SIDE WAGER, Bert Wilson, a Pingelly blacksmith (WA), pushed Ben Jackson (sitter) in a barrow from Brookton to Pingelly (12½ miles) in 5 hours, 14 minutes. The wager was that the distance would… Read More ›
Road Trip: The pubs of Balmain and Rozelle
By MICK ROBERTS © THE pubs we visited on our road trip to Sydney’s inner-west in 2019 started their trading life as working class, blue collar establishments. The four pubs all opened over a century ago, frequented by wharfies, factory… Read More ›
Road trip: Glenroy Hotel, Alexandria
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE’S a feeling of longevity, a sense of durability at the Glenroy Hotel. The Alexandria pub, in Sydney’ inner-southern suburbs, a stone’s throw from Redfern, has been quenching thirsts for as long as anybody cares to… Read More ›
The man who invented the ‘lock-nut’, entrepreneur James H. Shekleton was also a bush publican
By MICK ROBERTS © NOT far from where a long-forgotten bush pub once traded, 450kms east of Perth in the Western Australian outback, sits the lonely grave of Scotsman, Tom Davidson. The goldfields of Western Australia are a strange last… Read More ›
The old Palace has been serving-up beer in Sydney for over 150 years: Local Taphouse, Darlinghurst
Palace Hotel, Darlinghurst By MICK ROBERTS © THE Palace Hotel was first licensed in December 1878. Currently a craft beer pub, specialising in Australian brews, the former Palace Hotel, at the corner of Flinders Street and South Dowling Road at… Read More ›
He can shout – if he likes
This week the Sunday Telegraph asked the President of the United Liquor Victuallers Association (ULVA), Mr N. Connolly, the attitude the ULVA would adopt toward a Sydney publican who reintroduced the pre-war gesture of “shouting” rounds of drinks for his… Read More ›
Parramatta’s Tattersalls Hotel and the Creasey family
By MICK ROBERTS © MARGARET Creasey must have been wary of banks. Twice, banks purchased her pubs at Parramatta, and moved her from successful operating businesses over her 26 year career as a hotelier. Margaret, along with her husband John, established… Read More ›
Paddington pub punching above its weight
By MICK ROBERTS © LIKE footballers, it seemed it was once a right of passage for boxers to turn their hand to a pub career after retiring from their sport. One pugilist who swapped his gloves for a publican apron was… Read More ›
Sydney’s majestic nude painting left ‘Chloe for dead’ at Sydney’s Newcastle Hotel
THE bars of Jim Buckley’s Newcastle Hotel, in Sydney’s CBD, were adorned with artwork. Most of the available wall space inside the pub, which was home to Sydney’s more creative drinkers, was hung with artwork. Buckley had the the pub,… Read More ›