Seven Pubs, a Brewery and a Murder: The Illawarra’s First Decade of Licensed Trade 1830-1840 By MICK ROBERTS © SHAKING off the stigma of lawlessness, drunkenness and a reputation as a refuge for bushrangers, brought attempts at social restructure in… Read More ›
Chapter One: 1820 – 1830 The Evolution of the Australian Pub By MICK ROBERTS © THE liquor industry – particularly pubs – have played a determining role in the history of Australia. This fact is no more evident than in… Read More ›
For over 60 years, the doors of Singleton’s prominent watering hole — known originally as the Freemasons Arms, later the Cricketers Arms and later again as the Club House Hotel — were helmed by three consecutive publicans who weren’t just… Read More ›
The Chamberlain Hotel is a heritage-listed landmark building located at the corner of Pitt and Campbell Streets in Haymarket, Sydney. Built between 1902 and 1904, it was designed to provide lodging and refreshment for travellers near Central Railway Station and… Read More ›
The Commercial Hotel Aberdeen on the New England Highway began as the early Aberdeen Inn, constructed in 1837–1838 with hand-made bricks fired in a local kiln. Officially opened in April 1839 with Ralph George Martin as its first licensee, it… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © I’VE been researching pubs for almost 40 years, and am amazed at how sometimes the simplest detail can slip you by! This is a story about the Bulli Family Hotel in the Illawarra region of NSW,… Read More ›
TO understand the timber and iron of the Red Beret Hotel in Redlynch, one must first understand the iron and grit of the men and women who carved Far North Queensland out of the rainforest. The hotel’s story does not… Read More ›
ANGLEDOOL’S Exchange Hotel served the bustling 19th-century pastoral and opal-mining communities for just over half a century before its sudden demise. Angledool is a remote rural locality and historical village in north-western NSW. Located on the Narran River, the village… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © Long before it became the bustling, beer-soaked corner of Irish Murphy’s, the intersection of Elizabeth and George Streets was born from grit, survival, and a widow’s desperate gamble. Armed with nothing but an empty property and… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © ALL within a short walk from Sydney Harbour’s docks, during the 19th century, once traded four pubs known as the Whalers Arms. Rubbing shoulders in the cramped, crowded bars and taprooms of the inns and public… Read More ›