Alice Springs’ controversial Todd Tavern ‘animal bar’ not racist, former owner tells inquest

The Todd Tavern’s former owner says when he bought the pub in 1992 there was a photo of a naked rugby team on the wall patrons referred to as the ‘Animals’.

David Koch said the name Animal Bar was listed on the Todd Tavern’s liquor licence and displayed on a sign outside when he bought the pub in 1992. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The former owner of Alice Springs’ Todd Tavern has denied the provenance of the pub’s controversial “animal bar” is racist, saying it was historically “frequented by white males”.

The term “animal bar” has long been associated with the venue’s back bar, which services an almost exclusively Aboriginal clientele, along with a similar bar formerly at the Gap View Hotel.

In 2010, then Chief Minister Paul Everingham told the ABC the venues — which at the time opened at 10am and closed at 2pm when the bottle shops opened — had “no place in the Northern Territory”.

“These types of animal bars were closed down in Darwin many years ago,” he told the broadcaster at the time.

“People on licensed premises who seek to target a particular clientele, only to tip them out on the street when the bottle shops are open — their time is coming.”

The Gap View’s “animal bar” has since been incorporated into the main venue but the Todd’s extant version made headlines when brought up in evidence by former NT cop Zach Rolfe at an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker last month.

Responding to questions about allegations of racism within the force, Mr Rolfe told the inquest officers would frequently refer to the “Aboriginal only” section of the pub as the “animal bar”.

Former NT Police constable Zach Rolfe told the court ‘animal bar was used every day’. Picture: Jason Walls

“The animal bar was used every day to talk about ‘We’re going through the animal bar to look for a warrant’, or someone’s located at the animal bar,” he said.

But in a statement tendered to the inquest, the tavern’s former owner David Koch denied the origins of the term were racist.

Mr Koch said the name Animal Bar was listed on the venue’s liquor licence and displayed on a sign outside when he bought the business in 1992.

“I recall there being a large photograph fixed to the wall in the Animal Bar,” he said in the statement.

“The photograph was of a rugby team and the males in the photo were naked.

“I recall the team was referred to as the ‘Animals’ by the bar patrons and I believe there was some historic(al) link between the photograph and the bar being called the Animal Bar.

“Historically the Animal Bar was frequented by white males and in particular ringers and tradies.

“Over time the bar transitioned and became a bar that was frequented heavily by the local Aboriginal community.”

Mr Koch said he was contacted by the NT Liquor Commission in the mid-1990s and “advised that the name of the Animal Bar needed to be changed” after which it was renamed the Riverside Bar.