Australian Pubs - by Larkins & Howard - 1976 Hardcover Book - Australiana

Australian Pubs - by Larkins & Howard - 1976 Hardcover Book - Australiana.

AUSTRALIAN PUBS is the result of a

25,000-mile pub crawl" embarked upon

by Melbourne columnist John Larkins

and photographer Bruce Howard. Their

journey began one warm Sunday after-

noon at Silverton, near Broken Hill, and

ended twelve months and many hang-

overs later at the new Wrest Point

Casino in Hobart under the shadow of

snow-capped Mount Wellington.

They drank in all kinds of pubs, from the

little tin shanty in the outback, where

the tumbleweed bounces past the ever-

open door, to the dim cocktail bar in the

city where lovers whisper. They found

one pub built from bricks made by ants;

another so violent that the licensee lives

behind a barbed wire fence and hardly

dares enter the bar without his German

Shepherd dog; and yet another which is

so lavish that it has Sidney Nolan origi-

nals in the foyer, a mirror from Musso-

in's palace, enough caviar on hand to

feed a Cossack regiment, and rooms

:osting more than $100 a night.

And because pubs are for people, they

net many unusual characters on both

ides of the bar. People like the old-

timer who stockwhips a cigarette from

his dog's mouth at ten paces and, when

he's had a few beers, permits it to use a

long cigarette-holder so that he won't

flick its nose.

People like the tiny Japanese woman

who runs one of the toughest pubs in

the land--and referees her patrons'

fights to prevent kicking and gouging.

Or the barman who wears make-up and

paints his fingernails black

the

publican who prefers to go out dressed

as a woman

fighters, strippers,

prostitutes, the rich and the poor.

With lots of humour, a touch of nostal-

gia, a little drama and an infallible eve

for the unusual and the offbeat, John

Larkins and Bruce Howard have pro-

duced the thirsty man's guide

to Australia.

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