By MICK ROBERTS © CORRIMAL coal miner George Forsyth Bryson liked a beer – almost as much as he liked motorcycles. He was described in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in 1946 as a short, stocky man, with brown… Read More ›
Australian Hotels
The man who invented the ‘lock-nut’, entrepreneur James H. Shekleton was also a bush publican
By MICK ROBERTS © NOT far from where a long-forgotten bush pub once traded, 450kms east of Perth in the Western Australian outback, sits the lonely grave of Scotsman, Tom Davidson. The goldfields of Western Australia are a strange last… Read More ›
Uncle Obadiah wasn’t impressed with family friendly pubs: ‘We used to play darts with crowbars and the barmen buried the losers’
WHEN a progressive publican spent £2,000 in 1946 making his Western Australian goldfields’ hotel family friendly, he came in for some criticism from the old-guard; those who thought pubs should be exclusively for the pleasures of men, and strictly for… Read More ›
The birth of the 10-ounce middy and pot glass in NSW and Qld
By MICK ROBERTS © IN Sydney it’s called a middy, while in Melbourne or Brisbane, a 10 ounce glass of beer is dubbed a pot. The 10 ounce glass has been a popular beer vessel in Australian pubs for over a… Read More ›
An old English pub in the Australian outback: The Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Kalgoorlie
The presence of an old English pub in the dry, dusty goldfields of Western Australia, must have had a few inhabitants of Kalgoorlie scratching their heads when it first opened for business at the turn of last century. The Duke… Read More ›
Mysterious death at Temora’s Federal Hotel
Mysterious death at the Federal A POST mortem failed to reveal the cause of death of 48-year-old Henry Murphy, who was found dead in a bedroom at the Federal Hotel, Temora in September 1948. A broken drinking glass and a wrapper of… Read More ›
Fire destroys the White House Hotel, Menzies
FIRE destroyed a number of buildings, including the White House Hotel, in the Western Australian gold mining town of Menzies in 1898. Within a few days the thirsty miners were again propped against the bar when a… Read More ›
Albion Brewery, Wagga Wagga
The Albion Brewery in Baylis Street Wagga Wagga, NSW was established by William Davoren and Hugh McDonald in 1889. According to the late Keith M. Deutsher, in his book ‘Breweries of Australia, A History’, the pair had two competitor breweries… Read More ›
Grand accommodation for seven shillings a night along the Pittsworth Road
The Brisbane Telegraph published this fantastic photograph taken in the Darling Downs, of South West Queensland on November 30 1933 with the statement: “We wonder whether the traveller who camped under this well known hotel sign on the Pittsworth Road… Read More ›
This will make your mouth dry…
YOU BEAUT! Tooheys brewery went to the rescue of city hotels today when thirsty shoppers crowded bars. Here is some of the brewery’s stock that employees rushed to hotels. -The Sydney Sun Thursday 24 December 1953