By MICK ROBERTS © WHEN an Illawarra civic leader died on the sofa of Wollongong’s Commercial Hotel in 1872 the news caused a sensation. Edward Killalea was elected to the Shellharbour Municipal Council just two years before his death in 1872… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © A FLAMBOYANT opera singer, who gained his stage name from actress Ann Sheridan, was the publican responsible for giving Jamberoo its English Tudor style pub. The larger than life character is said to have renovated… Read More ›
BILLY Fitzpatrick of Market Square, went to work with the City’s milkman, Charlie Price, at the same age that he became a regular at the Harp Hotel *.He earned 2/6 a week.“I walked from house to house, carrying four gallons… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © LONG before the Sydney Push met in pubs around the harbour city, a group of “theatrical types, well primed with soda and a dash” paved the way for artists by reciting poetry and “warbling” songs in… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © “Driver Kelly would tell hobgoblin stories by the way, especially of the ‘little one-legged man of Bottle Forest’, whose footprint it was considered uncanny to come across. No one would camp anywhere along the road if… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © THE Kennedy brothers’ attempts at respectability in Australia seemed to have started off on the right foot. The three Irishmen, Hugh, John and Richard, built a portfolio of properties, and established a profitable cattle trading business,… Read More ›