Ipswich pub Walloon Hotel calls out drinkers to return beer glass

Slim Dusty once wrote a song about the pub with no beer... but this century-old hotel is the pub with no beer glasses with its owner claiming to lose up to $300 a week as a result.

Walloon Hotel owner Stewart Gibson toasts with local legend Scotty who returned a number of glasses to the hotel. Picture: Walloon Hotel

A historic pub has been calling out customers to return the beer glasses that they have taken after losing hundreds of dollars a week.

Ipswich pub Walloon Hotel, also known as Walloon Saloon, declared a “glass amnesty” on Tuesday.

Owner Stewart Gibson urged all drinkers who deliberately or mistakenly taken away their glasses to return them.

“No questions’ asked. Bring them home to where they belong,” he said.

“Hopefully people can bring them back this week.”

Mr Gibson said the pub has been losing about $200 to $300 on missing glasses every week, but he was uncertain about the reasons behind their actions.

“(It’s because) the living crisis that we are at the moment and people can’t afford their own glasses, so they’ve taken them home,” he said.

“Or just because they want to take a piece of the Walloon Hotel home with them.”

Walloon Hotel owner Stewart Gibson toasts with local legend Scotty who returned a number of glasses to the hotel. Picture: Walloon Hotel

He promised to “look after” those who return the pub’s property.

“We’ll usually buy them a schooner,” he said.

Under its announcement on Facebook, locals have been tagging their friends, with one said “we’ve all been naughty at some point”.

Another joked: “I probably have some from back in the early 2000s.”

Walloon Hotel locates in an Ipswich suburb for more than 120 years. Picture: Walloon Hotel

While another local bar The Peak Pub admired Walloon Hotel’s idea.

“It’s either stop (people from) taking them or drink out of s***y plastic cups,” it said.

“People don’t realise they cost nearly $4 each.”

Walloon Hotel has been serving the suburb for more than 120 years and was sold to the Mr Gibson’s family in 2018.

They planned a refurbishment on the building and the construction of a proposed stand-alone drive-through bottle shop has already started.