By MICK ROBERTS © THE Cropper family had a tragic start as hoteliers in the New England region of NSW. The family helped establish the historic Marshal MacMahon Hotel at Wallabadah, about 18 kilometres south of Tamworth, when William Cropper… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © WHAT could be a more fitting story for Surfers Paradise then the rags-to-riches tale of a barber, who rose to become one of Queensland’s most successful businessmen through clever exaggeration, media manipulation and showmanship? James Freeman… Read More ›
WE’RE entering our 10th year of publication! Who would have thought it’s been a decade since ‘Time Gents, Australian Pub Project’ began bringing you the colourful yarns, our road trips and stories about this country’s wonderful watering holes. To mark… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © BESIDES boasting a large and profitable pub portfolio, the Plasto family were the darlings of Sydney’s social-set for over 40 years. During the 1930s through to the 1960s, the family were rarely out of the newspapers’… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © NOT many pubs could claim a ‘king’ as their ‘yardman’. Broome’s Continental Hotel in the Kimberley region of Western Australia has that distinction. Aboriginal elder, ‘King Mackie’ was the ‘boots’ or ‘roustabout’ at the Continental Hotel… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © LITTERALLY sitting on the banks of the Parramatta River, the quaintly named Emu Hotel had gained a reputation as a disorderly house during the 1890s. The pub was frequented by inmates from the nearby benevolent asylums and… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © WHEN Adam ‘Jack’ Swale walked into the police station confessing to swindling the Tamarang Council while shire clerk in 1912, it ended the career of one of Quirindi’s best known citizens and most successful businessmen. Swale… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © FOLLOWING hot on the heels of the demolition of Parramatta’s historic Royal Oak Hotel, the NSW Government is about to rase another of Sydney’s landmark pubs in the name of public transport infrastructure. With much controversy… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Queen’s Hotel, opposite the wharves on the Brisbane River, was a favourite haunt of sailors and the men working on the docks. And, no wonder. The pub sat opposite a small reserve dominated by a… Read More ›