Take a tour of the oldests pubs around The Rocks — with a beer in hand
MERCEDES Maguire takes a historical touer of the oldest pubs around The Rocks — with a beer in hand
NSW
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AN urban myth tells of how Opera House architect Joern Utzon was inspired to design the famous landmark while sitting on the rooftop of The Glenmore Hotel in The Rocks with a telltale cut orange in front of him. Regardless of whether there is any truth to the fable, it’s entertaining chitchat like this that helps set Dave’s Pub Walks apart from other similar tours.
The historic pub walk through Sydney’s once-gritty Rocks precinct, allows you to indulge in a little colonial history — with a beer in hand.
Our guide is Gregg Peet, who has been walking visitors to The Rocks and through the old laneways of Sydney’s first neighbourhood since 2010.
We meet at Harts Pub (cnr of Essex and Gloucester Sts), one of the champions of craft brewing in Australia, with an ever-changing range of Aussie brews on tap. A quote from poet Henry Lawson on the wall sets the scene: “Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.”
Peet tells us the two-hour tour will take us to four pubs, all of them claiming to be Sydney’s oldest. After a Hangman Pale Ale at Harts, we set off through the narrow lanes en route to George St.
Along the way we hear about the first hospital in the colony near the site of modern-day laneways Nurses Walk and Surgeons Court.
Outside the Fortune Of War (137 George St), Peet tells us this oft-touted oldest pub has only a tenuous claim to the title, as the current building was built in 1922. However, there has been a public house on, or near, the spot since 1828.
As we stroll to the Australian Heritage Hotel (100 Cumberland St), we hear about the turn-of-the-century gangs — including the famous Rocks Push — who frequented the area around Suez Canal, so named for the muck that flowed to the streets below it in pre-sewered Sydney.
We’re told about the role of the Rocks Push women, known as donahs, who would lure drunken whalers, sailors and traders to dark, isolated alleys for the gang to assault and rob them — or worse.
The Australian Hotel’s claim on history is that it’s the oldest continuously run pub, we hear. Then, after a Scharers Lager from Picton’s Little Brewing Company, we move on, wandering up the Argyle Cut to The Hero Of Waterloo (81 Lower Fort St), a soldiers’ pub named after the famous Duke Of Wellington.
In the pub’s old cellar, we hear the most gruesome story of all about men being “Shanghaied” — or lured with spiked drinks — to become sailors. The hapless novices were thrown down a trap door in the cellar, taken through tunnels to the Walsh Bay wharves, then on to a ship and out to sea before they regained consciousness.
The Hero Of Waterloo’s liquor licence dates from 1843, making it a strong contender for the oldest-pub title.
Our final stop is the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel (19 Kent St), heaving with patrons on a Saturday night.
With a liquor licence dating back to about the same time as The Hero, it’s also well in the running.
So which pub is the winner? You’ll have to take the tour to find out.
There are also tours of Balmain and the Sydney CBD.
Rocks tour, weekdays, 11.30am, 2.30pm and 6pm, $80, davespubwalks.com.au
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