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 ›
Australian Hotels
Broome’s Continental Hotel was established by Filipino pearler
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 ›
Emu Hotel was a favourite with the inmates of the Parramatta asylum
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 ›
Quirindi’s Imperial Hotel lost its magnificent balcony – twice!
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 ›
Last drinks for 150-year-old Concord pub, hosted by three generations of the one family
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 ›
Blackbirder established the Queen’s Hotel on the Brisbane River wharves
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 ›
Road trip: The pubs of Queensland’s Cassowary Coast
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE were plenty of pleasurable pubs to visit and review on our 145km road trip south from Cairns to Feluga late last year. There’s the pub in the sugarcane-fields at Garradunga, said to be haunted by… Read More ›
Time to reduce beer tax to help pubs recover from Covid lock downs
AS other countries cut their beer tax to help the hospitality industry recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia’s tariff continues to rise twice a year. The UK Government has announced it will slash draught beer tax, whilst Australia surges up… Read More ›
Hides Hotel: How the O’Haras lost their Cairns Hotel legacy
By MICK ROBERTS © THE O’Hara family just couldn’t shake the legacy of their predecessors. Despite the Hides not building or hosting the landmark hotel at the corner of Lake and Shields Streets, in the far northern Queensland city of… Read More ›