The pubs of the Atherton Tablelands By MICK ROBERTS © OVER two and a half hours south of Cooktown, we reach the next destination on our Far North Queensland road trip – the village of Mount Molloy and the National… Read More ›
Queensland hotels
Road Trip: Far North Queensland, Part 4
The frontier pubs of Cooktown By MICK ROBERTS © THERE are not many places to quench the thirst on the three hour journey along the Mulligan Highway to Cooktown, but the quality of the pubs on the 250km trek sure… Read More ›
Fire destroyed Emu Park’s Grand Hotel
THE site of the Pine Beach Hotel at Emu Park, near Rockhampton, Queensland, has been home to a hotel since 1871. The first pub in Emu Park, the Brighton opened on the site in 1871, and in 1879 it was… Read More ›
Emu Park’s Imperial Hotel destroyed by fire
AT its peak in popularity in the early 1900s, Emu Park, a Queensland coastal town on the Capricorn Coast about 20 kilometres south of Yeppoon, had four hotels to service its tourist industry. The Pine Beach Hotel, once home to… Read More ›
Road Trip: Far North Queensland, Part 3
The pubs of Port Douglas and Mossman By MICK ROBERTS © WHEN the mill is open, pub business booms in the sugar cane town of Mossman. We spoke with two publicans and a few local drinkers as part of our… Read More ›
Road Trip: Far North Queensland, Part 2
The disappearing pubs of Gordonvale By MICK ROBERTS © SITTING at the end of the bar on his usual stool, ‘Pop’ gave me a cautious glance when I walked into the Great Northern Hotel at Gordonvale and started up a… Read More ›
Road Trip: Far North Queensland, Part 1
By MICK ROBERTS © The pubs of Cairns City, Stratford, Redlynch and Edmonton CAIRNS’ pub culture has changed considerably since the mid 1980s when I first ventured to the far northern Queensland city as a young man. The crowded bars,… Read More ›
Hen gets ‘clucky’ on beer
Here she is, Hilda, the beer-drinking hen: At Jack Ahern’s Hamilton Hotel [Brisbane, Qld] they’ve got hen which drinks beer — and cat which puts hen to bed when it gets ‘clucky’ on grog! “Hilda the Hen’s” penchant for beer… Read More ›
West Coast Hotel’s famous frescoes
By Mick Roberts © A HOTEL in Far-North-Queensland once featured lively frescoes telling the story of the Palmer goldfield — from the early rush, to the rust which coated the derelict workings. The frescoes were painted by 44-year-old Sydney artist,… Read More ›