Australian pub

The production and consumption of alcoholic drinks has long played a key role in Western commerce and social activity, and this is reflected in the importance of pubs in the British colonisation of Australia after 1788.

Pubs proliferated during the 19th century, especially during the gold rush that began in the 1850s, and many fine examples were built in the state capitals and major regional cities and towns.

The development that solidified the characteristic style of the modern Australian pub was the introduction of the American-style bar counter in the early nineteenth[citation needed] century.

Liquor licensing policies in early colonial Australia were relatively liberal, but in the late 19th century there was growing pressure from conservative Christian groups, known as the Temperance Leagues, to restrict the sale of alcohol.

Although liquor sales remained heavily restricted for many years, Australia did not experience the many social ills, including the vast expansion of organised crime that resulted from Prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.

By the mid-20th century the brewing industry was dominated by a handful of large and powerful state-based companies: Tooth's and Toohey's in Sydney, Carlton United in Melbourne, Castlemaine in Brisbane, West End and Coopers in Adelaide and Swan in Perth.

Temperance advocates feared – with some justification – that workers would spend all their time and money in the pub if they were permitted to stay there throughout the evening, and that children and families would suffer as a result (which they often did[citation needed]).

Pubs were seen as a nexus for all kinds of immoral activity, including illegal "SP betting", and the Temperance movement lobbied long and hard to have public houses tightly regulated and their opening hours severely restricted.

In this area, the "wowsers" (as they were dubbed) were very successful but these high moral concerns backfired, at least in terms of liquor licensing, and the new laws led to the evolution of what was a new phenomenon in Australian 20th century pub culture.

It fostered an endemic culture of daily binge drinking, which in turn created persistent problems of alcohol-related violence – drunken patrons regularly got into alcohol-fuelled fights in and around the pub, and many husbands arrived home in the early evening extremely drunk, with negative consequences.

Although it still continues in some areas, the worst excesses of the pub crawl tradition have largely disappeared thanks to the enforcement of responsible service of alcohol (RSA) laws.

These regulations and conventions created a climate in which many pubs – especially those located near dockyards and other industrial sites – gained a reputation for being violent, dangerous and generally unsavoury places.

In the years after World War I, it became traditional that, after the early morning commemorative service and march, ex-servicemen would gather at local pubs to drink, reminisce and play two-up.

Slot machines, known locally as "pokies", remain an important source of custom and revenue, although restrictive state-level licensing means that only a minority of pubs can operate them.

Many significant Australian groups of the 1970s and 1980s – including AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, The Choirboys and INXS – spent their formative years playing on the pub circuit.

Unlike the frenzied but generally upbeat atmosphere typical of Sixties pop shows, pub gigs could be a testing experience for even the most accomplished band.

Some pubs became associated with particular styles – in the early 1980s, the Civic Hotel in Sydney's CBD provided important support for many emerging local "new wave" acts including Mental As Anything, The Choirboys, The Numbers, Sunnyboys, INXS and Matt Finish.

By the end of the 1970s the pub circuit was a major provider of rock music entertainment in Australia and as a result, early tours by many visiting overseas acts from overseas who were becoming popular in Australia included many performances at major city and regional pubs; this included the first Australian tours by bands like XTC, The Cure and Simple Minds; such bands were often "broken" locally thanks to airplay on the ABC's new non-commercial 24-hour rock radio station Triple J, which played a wide variety of new music not heard on commercial pop-rock stations, and many international rock acts of the 1980s gained live exposure on the Australian pub circuit before gaining wider acceptance.

However, in the last quarter of the 20th century, suburbs like Paddington, Glebe and Newtown attracted many younger people because of their colourful character, the availability of cheap rental housing and their proximity to the city and major tertiary institutions like The University of Sydney.

Pub verandahs and balconies were often fitted with elaborate iron lace facings and cast-iron columns, because these new mass-produced components were highly fashionable, relatively cheap, and easily transportable.

Usually two or three-storey structures, they are typically built of brick and/or concrete, making extensive use of prefabricated plaster sheeting and cornices, ceramic tiles and terrazzo in their internal linings.

A feature common to almost all Australian pubs, whether in the city, the suburbs or in rural and regional areas, was the provision of rooms that could be rented out as accommodation, usually located on the floors above the bars.

Few of these have survived the recent waves of urban redevelopment and most of Australia's fine Art Deco cinemas, shops, restaurants and office buildings were torn down in the late 20th century.

The creation of these beer ads was a specialised craft – they were entirely hand-painted in reverse on thick glass, and then wall-mounted in heavy brass frames, which were kept highly polished.

They featured striking and often highly stylised designs and compositions, painted in vibrant colours, and in many cases the text and some parts of the graphic were accentuated with real gold leaf.

Like the example below, they typically depicted archetypal 'Aussie' sporting scenes – swimming, surfing, sailing, horse-racing, cricket or football – or social events such as picnics, dances and parties.

Over the years, as advertising materials (and the pubs themselves) were progressively modernised during the late 20th century, almost all the hand-painted beer ads were removed, but their distinctive style has become well-recognised and much-loved, and they are still a reference point in modern Australian commercial art.

One of the most famous incidents in this informal campaign took place in January 1973, when a group of feminist activists staged a protest against the rules in the Public Bar of the Hotel Manly in Sydney.

Widowhood and wife desertion were much more common in 19th-century Australia than today, and in the absence of any social safety net for single mothers, women had to explore options to provide for their families, especially in remote areas.

This discrimination was exacerbated by the 'morals' campaigns that were waged around Australia from the 1880s to the 1920s, and religiously motivated temperance activists deliberately fostered a negative image of the barmaid as a 'loose woman' who lured men into pubs to drink and squander their money.