Push for extended drinking hours to make Melbourne 24-hour city

LORD mayor Robert Doyle is supporting a push for extended drinking hours, saying the city needs to “move towards a real 24-hour city”.

Melbourne bars are pushing for extended liquor licenses that could see them serving 24 hours a day. Madame Brussels is part of the campaign, wanting to serve bloody Marys in the morning. Hostess Miss Pearl With Bloody Mary, Picture Yuri Kouzmin

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LORD mayor Robert Doyle is supporting a push for extended drinking hours, as some bars call for 24-hour liquor licences.

Cr Doyle supports a partial extension of opening hours into the early morning at smaller venues and those serving food.

But he said a return to the days of 24-hour beer barns was not on the cards: each venue would be judged on its merits.

All-night public transport was changing the way the city worked at the weekend, and Cr Doyle said the city needed to prepare for extended hours “and move towards a real 24-hour city”.

“There is a real opportunity, I think, to offer to really well-performing small bars, that are so emblematic of Melbourne, an extension to their licence hours — particularly when they serve food,” Cr Doyle said.

“We need to identify particular ­venues and target precincts so that people understand if they want to have something to eat and a glass of wine late at night, maybe at one in the morning, there are places that cater for that. (But we will) not go back to the days where the culture of the city was the (unrestrained) sale and consumption of alcohol.”

Melbourne needs to become a “real 24-hour city”, according to Cr Doyle. Picture Norm Oorloff

In the city, 275 venues serve alcohol, of which about 120 are licensed to trade past 1am.

The number of bars has rapidly taken off: Melbourne City Council data show that the number has grown by 175 per cent in the past decade.

Melbourne’s push to open up the city is in stark contrast with the approach being taken in Sydney, where lockout laws prevent venues admitting patrons after 1.30am or serving alcohol after 3am.

The Association of Liquor Licensees’ Melbourne secretary, Nich­olas Albon, said this had made Sydney a ghost town, and he warned that Melbourne could never go back to those days.

“What we’re seeing with Sydney is one of the great cities in the world shut down. If you want a true 24-hour night-time economy, you need 24-hour venues: those include restaurants, bars, pubs, theatres, nightclubs,” Mr Albon said.

Madame Brussels hostess Miss Pearls said they were “desperate” to stay open longer: “Melbourne is one of the leading cities in the world. Why not start acting like it?”

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