BRISBANE’S Royal Hotel was a popular haunt of journalists from the nearby Telegraph newspaper offices. The pub sat almost opposite the Brisbane General Post Office in Queen Street and was established in 1862. At the time of its construction, the… Read More ›
AUSTERITY BEER MUGS BEER AT Hides Hotel, Cairns, is served in sawn-off beer bottles, coffee jars, enamel mugs, and honey jars. The manager says all the hotel’s drinking glasses have been “souvenired.” Prices for drinks range from 9d to 3/6,… Read More ›
THIS grand structure was branded Queensland’s strangest hotel in 1934. The “temporary bar”, served the licensing purposes of the Broadway Hotel, near Kingaroy, Queensland, after the original pub was destroyed by fire in 1932. While normally there’s a limited time for temporary… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © UNLIKE most of Australia, Queensland and Western Australia had a ‘watered-down’ version of the infamous ‘six-o’clock swill’. The ‘swill’ was a nickname given to the frenzied rush by Australians and New Zealanders to buy drinks from… Read More ›
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 ›
MEMBERS of the Salvation Army band were playing and singing Christmas carols outside a South Brisbane hotel. Drinkers in the bar joined in merrily. “You can’t sing in here,” roared the barman. “If you want to sing go out and… Read More ›
WAY before pokies and television screens, pubs had to find other means to attract and entertain customers to their bars. Pets of various descriptions were often used to draw custom, and occasionally the talented animals and the the pubs they… Read More ›
Old Dunmore Arms Hotel, corner George and Elizabeth Streets, Brisbane: Between the hotel and the Bank of New South Wales are old buildings, which for years were the business premises of Francis Hicks (familiarly known as “Old” Hicks). The office of Mr…. Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © A QUEENSLAND publican who refused accommodation to ‘scab’ labourers, out of fear that his pub would be burnt to the ground, during the height of the great shearers’ strike, was shown no mercy by a magistrate…. Read More ›
Australia’s largest timber pub, The Malanda Hotel. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection Exploring the pubs of the Atherton Tablelands © By MICK ROBERTS THE last leg of our Far North Queensland road trip brought us to the historic pubs of the… Read More ›