THERE is nothing in the colony of its sort to rival the rugged scenery of the North Gippsland mountains (Victoria), over which it is necessary to travel in order to reach Omeo and the Glen Wills goldfields. In fine weather… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE terrifying roar of an approaching bushfire is a sound familiar to many a publican at the Kinglake Hotel – a small Victorian pub established in 1908. Located 56 km north-east of Melbourne, the pub is… Read More ›
By ERNEST McCAUGHAN TO ANYONE ACQUAINTED WITH MELBOURNE in the last century nothing is more striking than the disappearance of many popular city hotels. Few today recall their whereabouts, much less their hosts, though some were personalities. The Union Club,… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THERE was little chance of getting a beer, let alone a room, in Wedderburn’s two pubs when gold fever gripped the sleepy farming township in March 1950. A resident unearthed a 175-ounce nugget of gold in… Read More ›
Many towns in Australia are but shadows of what they were in the “good old days,” but surely Woods Point (Vic.) beats, them all. According to official figures compiled in the hey-day of gold-mining, it was an evangelist’s heaven. There… Read More ›
ONE of Australia’s smallest hotels was said to be at Allendale, near Ballarat in Victoria. The pub measured 8 yards [7.3 metres] by 8 yards and was known as the Allendale Hotel. A signboard outside the one bar, one bedroomed… Read More ›
Joe the bounder in the pub Strangers think they’ve had one too many, but the pub regulars are no longer jumpy when a kangaroo they call Joe breasts the bar By BILL WELLS Joe’s no lounge lizard, but he is… Read More ›
THE site of the Darlingford Hotel now sits at the bottom of Lake Eildon, a rock and earth-fill embankment dam across the Goulburn River, between the regional towns of Mansfield and Eildon in Victoria. Darlingford, named after Sir Charles Darling,… Read More ›
Keeping the constable’s beer cool THE transfer recently of a senior constable, to a northern Victorian town calls to mind an amusing incident that occurred years ago when the senior, before his promotion, was a constable on street duty in… Read More ›
Warrandyte Hotel Burnt Out The Warrandyte Hotel, an old landmark 17 miles from Melbourne, was totally destroyed by fire in the early hours of Monday. The hotel was established about 70 years ago by the late Mr James MCutcheon, and… Read More ›