By MICK ROBERTS © WALKING the mine-field of the various names of beer glass-sizes in Australia can be tricky – especially when you’re from inter-state. There’s the butcher, the handle, a pot, middy, and, of course, the schooner. While many… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE are some publicans who truly earn a legendary status. As a bush publican, shearer, colt-breaker, mail coach driver, boundary rider, noted athlete, scalper, and successful racehorse owner and trainer, Hermann Schmidt, was one of those… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © ALTHOUGH today you would be hard pressed to believe it, prior to gentrification, Surry Hills was home to some of Sydney’s toughest pubs. The pubs of the inner-Sydney suburb were haunts of the city’s shadiest characters… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERT © WHEN the doors of Weir’s Hotel closed for the last time in 1937, it left just one pub – the Royal – trading in the former gold mining town of Hill End. Hill End, which once… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © COLONIAL Hobart was home to some of the most notorious pubs, not only in Tasmania, but all of Australia. With odd names, like the Pickwick Tavern, Labor in Vain, Good Woman, Lame Horse, Surely We Have… Read More ›
THE Australian Hotels Association (AHA) had its beginnings in Tasmania when a group of Hobart licensed victuallers, including ex-convict and host of the Tasmanian Inn, David Watson Bush, met to consider how best to promote and protect their businesses. The… Read More ›
By Mick Roberts © ALTHOUGH Melbourne’s Apollo Inn clearly displayed 1844 on its parapet, there seems to be a discrepancy in the pub’s establishment year. The Apollo Inn was rebuilt from a single-storey structure, containing four bedrooms and four sitting… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE pubs of the Northern Territory are full to the brim with terrific tales – some tall, some true – but most of all, entertaining; Like the one about when the host of Mataranka Hotel, Nellie… Read More ›
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 ›