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 ›
Western Australia hotels
Publican to the miners: ‘Bold Mac’, of the Murchison goldfields
John McManaway was a famed Western Australian publican, who hosted three pubs to the heavy drinking miners of the Murchison goldfields. Known far and wide as ‘Bold McManaway’, or simply ‘Mac’, the Irishman was said to have feared nothing, was always up-for-a-fight –… Read More ›
Kalgoorlie’s pub riots: WA Premier threatened at Wilkies in 1898 and two men killed during 1934 racial riots
A NUMBER of disturbances between miners and the authorities in Kalgoorlie centred on the pubs – the diggers unofficial meeting places. One of the first occurred in March 1898 when Western Australian Premier John Forrest visited the goldfields to officially… Read More ›
Policeman shot dead in bar of Perth’s Brisbane Hotel
NOW a popular pub in the Perth inner city suburb of Highgate, the Brisbane Hotel has traded for over 120 years. The pub, located at the corner of Brisbane and Beaufort Streets, was established in 1898. In recent years, the… Read More ›
Perth publican ‘Old Penn’ was a colourful character: A history of the Woodbridge Hotel
By MICK ROBERTS © A LARGER than life character, Jabez Penn made quite an impression during his 20 year career as a Perth hotelier. The son of an English conservative politician, Jabez Penn hosted two pubs and a wine saloon… Read More ›
Three Western Australian publicans from the past
Bob Connell Burlington Hotel, Bunbury Mine host of the remodelled Burlington Hotel, in Victoria-street, Bunbury, Bob has proved one of the most effective workers in the interests of the town and district. No man is better versed in the potentialities and the… Read More ›
Zandra the pub nude made Chloe look like ‘an elderly spinster in a red flannel negligee’
EVERYONE knows Chloe the famous ‘goil – in – oils’ at Young and Jackson’s Melbourne bar. Now in Perth (a short priced city in any pulchritude contest) she’s got a rival. And I mean rival. She’s Zandra, a finely-executed nude… Read More ›
Perth newspaper vendor, Jimmy could make beer run up hill
MEET Jimmy ‘Tich’ McCann (pictured). Jimmy was a well-known newspaper seller and ‘bootblack’ on the streets of Perth, Western Australia, during the 1930s. The ‘old fella’ loved his beer – especially upside down. You see, Jimmy claimed he could make… Read More ›
Evolution of the Australian beer glass
From pint and long sleever, to pot, middy and schooner By MICK ROBERTS © THE ‘long sleever’ was an impressive looking beer glass that stood 45cm high and held an Imperial pint, or 20 fluid ounces. In colonial times, when… Read More ›