The slow death of Melbourne’s inner-city pubs

The menu at the Moosehead was a classic pub menu. There was Chinese served there for a time. Also there was this random tiny enclosed beer garden out there back that was hardly ever used. Great pub!

My first experience at the Moosehead was signing out of boarding school on a Saturday night and heading into Carlton as a 17 year old. There was never any ID checks down. It’s fair to say after my fill (probably 3 or 4 at the time) of $2 Crownies we arrived back at school very merely.

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When we started at RMIT we used to do a pub crawl that was approx 30 pubs basically between RMIT and Melb Uni Oxford, Mac’s, Mercat, Stork, 2 opposite the market, the Peel(?), Queensberry, (hang on one on Elizabeth St before the Queensberry, across Queensberry towards the Curtin, Lincoln back up to the Canada (Moosehead) and on and on and round and round up to the Clyde.

Last time we did it I’d say November 2019, there were about 6 pubs worthy of a pub crawl… (Ie not “bars”)

It’s fair to say that after 30 odd years that around 6 or 7 pubs at a more stately pace seemed a wise move.

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Not when I was at uni. What I remember is Lauchlan Chipman from the Philosophy Department drinking beer and holding forth in the back bar, surrounded by adoring female philosophy students. He died quite recently.

We always had our students association end of semester arvo/evenings at the Moosehead. Great times.

The last time I was at the Canada was when it was getting built around. It was about 10 pubs into the night and about 1030, I’d taken early leave from the Queensberry as I’d finished my beer 5 minutes early and was thirsty. There were 2 bar staff and they were starting to wind up for the night. I bought my beer and as I was paying the barman said to the other bar tender “it’s a quiet night, you can go home”. I knew we had about 80 people about to burst through the door, “you’d better hang around”. 15 minutes later I slunk out having finished my beer alone. It seems the rest of the crew saw all the scaffolding, looked inside and though " it looks dead" and just kept going to the next pub…

And that was the last time I had a beer at the Canada…

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Ha. When this happened a mate of a mate was working at Fosters, and by a round about way an email that my housemates and I had crafted which was a summary of why every Lion Nathan pub was sht, made it to his boss who was head of marketing or some such. Anyway, that led to the housemates and me getting multiple free slabs, being given access to the staff bar at Fosters, and being taken out to dinner and fed alcohol by the head of marketing as they tried to understand how best to harness the general vibe of 20 something alcoholics who frequented inner city pubs.

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The Nott or Notting Hill particularly on a Thursday night was lively back in the days.

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I’m sorry for everything we didn’t mean it, it was just the last pub on the pub crawl…

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There were some messy nights a try Clyde in 2002! Best thing was I often knew many of the patrons. The Soccer World Cup that year was a highlight. With the tournament in South Korea and Japan it meant the time zone was perfect for filling the pub.

Dollar pots on Tuesday nights also brought in every cheap Uni student! Staff drinks and after work locks in were always great fun.

Working in the front bar was always good fun too. The most common regular there happened to be a Melbourne DJ legend in Stan “the man” Rofe. He had some amazing stories. Unfortunately he wasn’t in super health from years of smoking and drinking and his hearing was shot from all the loud music he played!

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And people say engineers are boring…

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Geologists too … apparently.

Monash Uni union nights - such a blast and a blur at the same time.

Had to venture into the city for pubs though - well besides from heading to the Nott for the $5 Schnitzels that hung off the edges of the plate.

Our local on weekends was the London Tavern in Richmond when it was half of the size it is today.

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Union nights were great. We congregated in the cafe and all sorts went on there, day and night. I saw the Stranglers at that Uni. A long way from central Melbourne was Monash but lots of learnings. We had a blast.

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Clouds + Frenté + Deborah Conway for the Union night win.

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Well, it was the closest pub to the Chen Lab, and at 10 am it was a really nice place to drink away your studentship money. I am talking 1970 also Albert, before the pub had any renovations.

The Clyde was at the bottom of the ramp from the Geo building, a very precarious position for a boy from Sunbury. Geez those day/nights in the mid 90s were awesome.
Assume the Clyde will be turned into apartments soon if it isn’t already.

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In the mid ‘90s there was cheap beer each night at each of the pubs, the likes of which will never be seen again. From memory it was 50c pots and $1 spirits for the happy hour. If you were lucky there’d be a tequila layback at the bar.

Naughtons - Monday
Clyde - Tuesday
PAs - Wednesday
? - Thursday

$2 crownies and crown slabs for $20 at the Canada bar if you were feeling upper class.

When Tooheys took over the bar at RMIT city campus, they had a 30c pot party in the street. Went through about 30 odd kegs in less than 30 minutes. Madness.

When I was living at Newman College we would do a pub crawl along Johnson/Elgin street to start semester 2. We would catch a bus down to the really filthy end of the street near the Yarra. The Retreat Hotel on Nicholson St was the starting point. None of the other pubs were off Johnson or Elgin. It’s a bit hazy given the number of pubs but there must have been at least a dozen. The Clyde was our end point. Fortunately it was our regular pub so they knew what to expect.

I haven’t had a look but I’m guessing half those pubs would no longer exist.

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Yeah, but public transport from from the Nott after a late one was complete pants, and i never had the money to do taxis regularly.

2 for 1 pots during 4-6pm were dangerous.

Always ordered a snake bite and a Black and Tan to do the biggest damage the quickest.

Pot and pie for $2.50 in the front bar killed many Uni days where I never made it back to lectures.

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