PUB YARNS & TALES

Stately Grieve and the Harp Hotel

CRAMPED and outdated, the small Wollongong coaching inn, known as the Harp Hotel, had outlived its usefulness by the mid 1880s.
George Clout took the reigns of Wollongong's oldest pub in 1883 and during his ownership the pub developed an unenviable reputation as one of the township's rougher establishments.
The local Licensing Inspector, Senior Sergeant Grieve was known as a tough cop who ruled with an iron fist. He tried unsuccessfully to have the Harp closed in June 1885 after branding Clout an unfit publican who ran a disorderly house.
The stately and solidly built Sergeant told the Magistrates that Clout conducted the Harp badly, drunken persons were allowed to "knock about the place at all hours" and the pub opened illegally on a Sunday.
Complaints had been repeatedly received about drunken men insulting passers-bys and that many of the larrikins congregated at the intersection of Crown and Corrimal Streets he argued in his case to close the old pub.
The Harp was a tough pub to operate during these times with the Illawarra railway works in progress and hundreds of men employed on the monstrous labour intensive project frequenting its bar.
Clout had around 15 of the contractor's men boarding at his pub, although not sleeping there, they made it their base and, of course, their recreation venue. On weekends many of the navies would pitch their tents in the hotel yard and head for the bar for a heavy drinking session. Arguments were frequent and Clout had his hands full trying to keep order.
Opened in 1839, the Harp was an important public building in the developing little town of Wollongong. The Campbelltown Mail Coach arrived and departed from the house with a passenger booking office situated in the pub's yard. The Coachman, who lived on the premises, would leave the pub for the overland trip to Campbelltown Railway Station to collect the Illawarra's mail. Many gathered there to receive news from the outside world.
Grieve's concerns fell on deaf ears in 1885. The court heard that the host had never been convicted of any offence during his sojourn at the pub and the case was dismissed.
Clout remained as host until 1886, later becoming an Alderman on the Lithgow Council and conducting a hotel in the Maitland district.
The little inn's days, however, were numbered and the license was cancelled because of the "dilapidated condition" of the premises in 1891.
A new pub replaced the old inn during 1893.

Pub Fights

Fighting was - and still is - a result of heated arguments in Aussie pubs. The best way to sought differences out was to head outside to see who "is the best man".
Often the fights turned into a circus with bets being placed and set times organised for the tussel. This was the case in one of Bulli's early watering holes during March 1880.
The Black Diamond Hotel (1876-1889), on the South Coast of NSW, wasn't a place for the faint hearted with hard and tough coal miners frequenting the bar.
A fight between two men, Robert Crompton and Richard Covil, arose from a quarrel on a Saturday night in the Black Diamond's assembly room.
At 9am the next morning the two men confronted each other for 15 shillings a side in "Campbells Padock". The 48 rounds was fierce and savage, both men covered in blood, with "the bigger man" taking the pickings.
The crowd of 50 onlookers had no worries about their entertainment being interupted with the local constable being sent on "a wild goose chase" when he was told the fight was to be held on the Bulli Pass.