AUSSIE PUBS ARE DISAPPEARING

A mate of mine returned from a 2024 road trip despondent about the number of country pubs that have shut, many for good, it seems. Some towns do not have a pub at all, with licensed clubs the only venues for a get-together, over a drink. Now, I don’t want to romanticise drinking, but, as a tribute to the role pubs play in the community, here are some reminisces from the period September, 1970 to March, 1975, as a young adult in the Tweed Valley of Northern New South Wales.

AUSTRALIAN HOTEL, MURWILLUMBAH

Local MLC insurance rep., Pat Dowling took me here for my first legal drink, after knocking on the door of our family home at 27 Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah, on my 18^th birthday (September 6, 1970). I was still at High School. Pat, a returned serviceman, and a founding member of the local Brothers’ Rugby League Club, had the gift of the gab, as they say. I think my first beer was a Toohey’s (New) in a 7oz glass. The Australian was an old wooden building, which burnt down on June 28, 1981. My good mate, Phil Batty’s father, Ray was fire chief, and led the operation to save the building, but to no avail. I recall once being assigned by the Brothers’ club to get beer, after hours. I went up the fire escape, at the back of the Australian, climbed the stairs and woke up the publican, who opened the cellar and produced a carton. I was a hero. I think we drank the stubbies (or cans) in the car park near the Olympic Swimming pool.

MURWILLUMBAH HOTEL

Also known as Murray’s during my time in the town (previously Bryant’s) this pub was the home of Brothers’ Rugby League Club, the place where we conducted raffles on Friday afternoon and/or Saturday morning. The publican (not sure who it was at the time) even built a shower ‘shed’ at the back at the pub, as there were no showers at the showgrounds, where we played home games. I recall when I first played under-18s for Brothers, we showered at ‘The Australian’, across the street, but then I think there was a falling out between the licensee and the club. Steve Hopkinson was the popular head barman at the Murwillumbah for most of my time in the town, and I even won a trophy named after him, for best back, way back in 1971. Pat Myers, who moved up from Forbes in NSW, was publican in 1974, and had two beautiful daughters. I took one of the daughters out for a short time. My good mate, Greg Grainger, met his wife Maree (nee Dowling) at the Jukebox in Murray’s. He says he played ‘Great Balls of Fire’, but I think he’s making that up. I put quite a few silver coins into the juke box to play Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’. My teammate, Russell Walsh and I met two Brisbane girls at the juke box in 1972, and you wouldn’t believe it, I bumped into one in George Street, Brisbane later that year, when Brothers’ were on an end-of-season trip. I took her to the movies at The George, which is now a Hillsong Church. Gads.

TUMBULGUM HOTEL

The Tumbulgum Cricket team’s field was directly behind the pub, so naturally, it was the venue for the players’ dissection of the day’s play. I can’t recall the publican’s name, but he was a small bloke, who I think went to Brisbane’s Regatta Hotel after leaving Tumbulgum. Just like the Regatta, the Tumbulgum pub is in a beautiful riverside location, the Regatta on the Brisbane River and the Tumbulgum at the junction of the Main Arm and the North Arm of the Tweed River. A ferry crossed the river at this point – up until 1986, when the Alexander Twohill Bridge was completed, just downstream. The pub was also the home of the ‘Tumbulgum Rangers’ Soccer’ team, which was substantially more well known than our cricket side. I had the honour of winning the L H Wright Shield for fielding in 1971-72.

CABARITA BEACH HOTEL

Cabarita Surf Club conducted its raffles here, usually on a Sunday afternoon when live music was a feature, in the times of Sunday sessions. You also had to have travelled a certain distance to be allowed onto licensed premises. Lots of Queenslanders drove over the border, through the sand mining wasteland, which is now Casuarina, to attend the Cabarita Session. (George Harris, the Brothers Rugby League president, was in charge of one of the sand mining dredges). During the week coach loads of young people from guest houses at Coolangatta would attend dances like the Hawaiian Night of Change of Sex Night at the Cabarita pub. The standout feature of the pub was the sunken outdoor beer garden, beside a glass sided swimming pool. People in the pool got up to all sorts of thing, usually in the knowledge they were being exhibitionists, given beer garden drinkers could see what was happening under water.

COURT HOUSE HOTEL MURWILLUMBAH

The home pub of Souths’ rugby league club, but it also was the venue for Group 18/Gold Coast Rugby League meetings, which I covered for the Daily News. The publicans were Laing and Dell Lehfeldt, and the beer (Tooths) was widely regarded as the best in town, particularly in the back bar, near Proudfoot’s Lane. The printers at the Daily News had after-hours access to the pub’s cold room, to get a carton of beer at the end of their shift. Entry to the pub simply required a five cent coin inserted in the key slot. As publicans, the Lehfeldts were about as good as you get.

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