pints and the paranormal

You get much more than a cold beer when you visit Port Adelaide’s pubs

WORDS TIM RICHARDS

Ghosts, closure and time can’t keep a good pub down,

in this case,
the Port Dock Brewery Hotel
Photos: Port Adelaide/Enfield Council/Milton Wordley
Wayne van Elsen

“There’s no reason to be scared of any of the ghosts, just talk to them normally.” So says Francis Thompson casually about the resident spirits of the Port Dock Brewery Hotel, including the much-sighted ‘lady in white’. But then he’s known them for a long time.

Francis Thompson isn’t going to let
the ‘lady in white’ stand between

him
and a cold beer

Thompson is a lifelong inhabitant of Port Adelaide, formerly the turf of hardworking wharfies, and he once worked as a maintenance man at the 1855 pub. He beckons me down to the hotel’s cellar to see if we can spot the other ghost, a seaman from the hotel’s rough-and-tumble early days, but he’s not home today.

However many spectres they had, pubs were a good investment in thirsty Victorian-era Port Adelaide. By the turn of the 20th century there were more than 40 drinking establishments within walking distance of the docks.

But not everyone was amused by the ready flow of alcohol. The fiery Reverend Joseph Kirby led an abstinence campaign against the port area’s drunken excesses, leading to a 1909 vote which closed a third of Port Adelaide’s pubs. The Dock Hotel was among those to lose its licence, and it seemed that an era was over.

The Lighthouse Inn enjoys a prime

spot on Port Adelaide’s wharf
Tourism South Australia/Johnny -
Janusz Kamma

But the building was just biding its time: in 1986 it reopened as a pub and boutique brewery. Reverend Kirby was probably turning in his grave, but the cheekiest moment was yet to come – the brewers named their strongest dark ale Old Preacher, in honour of their old foe.

The Port Dock’s not the only heritage pub to have survived preachers and the wrecker’s ball. Within the small area bounded by Commercial Road, St Vincent Street, Todd Street and the waterfront, there are six historic pubs still in operation.

The Ales & Sails, formerly The Lighthouse Inn, is a good location for an outdoor beer, overlooking the river and the bright red lighthouse on the wharf.

To the east along McLaren Parade is another classic pub, the 1850 Dockside Tavern (once the Britannia Hotel), though the current building dates from 1898. Twenty years earlier, in the days before street lighting, the publican of the day was once fined for not having a lighted lamp in front of his establishment overnight.

On St Vincent Street is the Railway Hotel, which opened in 1856 opposite the Port Dock train station, now home to the National Railway Museum. The pub is surprisingly authentic, with its timber shutters and an interior that looks like a country hotel of a few decades ago.

Time stands still at the Dockside
Tavern but they do have lighting now
Photo: Tim Richards

Owner Fred Hiscock is happy to leave the place as it is, with only a handful of pokies and an old-fashioned air. “We’ve tried to keep the old style,” he says, pointing out that the bar is made from timber salvaged from the old wool stores. “The people who come here like the fact they can sit at the bar and have a chat.”

And, the Railway still has some interesting stories to share. “There was a suggestion there was a body buried here back in the late 60s, and the police had a dig round,” says Hiscock. “But nothing came of it.”

The Railway also has some colourful neighbours, including the Royal Arms Hotel, which allegedly had a tunnel serving smugglers. To the west, opposite the Visitor Information Centre on Commercial Road, the currently closed Port Admiral Hotel wraps around a prominent corner location. Its most recent claim to fame was as a setting in the 2001 movie Black and White, starring Robert Carlyle. Just north is the First Commercial Inn, which once had its windows smashed in an 1851 riot between rival political supporters.

Summer is easy on Port Adelaide’s
Lipson Street
Tourism South Australia/Johnny
- Janusz Kamma

Though these pubs are great survivors, a walk around Port Adelaide reveals dramatic change is set to sweep the suburb. On every side, construction is underway on apartment blocks and other accommodation, while a new bridge will soon remove trucks from the centre of town. It seems like a wave of gentrification is just about to break.

But with few permanent residents so far, it’s surprisingly peaceful on a Saturday night, apart from the quiet social buzz in the historic pubs. Perhaps that’s how the ghosts of Port Adelaide like it.

The Perfect Pub Meal

As nothing goes down more smoothly with a beer than a bit of pub grub, I asked some Port Adelaide publicans for their favourite in-house beer and food combinations.

• John Cowled, Port Dock Brewery Hotel: Black Bart Milk Stout (brewed on-site) with beer-battered oysters.
• Fred Hiscock, Railway Hotel: Hahn Premium Light with fish and chips.
• Jill Floyd, Ales & Sails: Tooheys Extra Dry with braised lamb shanks in a tomato and red wine sauce.
• Frank Aloisi, Dockside Tavern: Coopers Pale Ale and a squid schnitzel with prawns and hollandaise sauce.
• David Clark, First Commercial Inn: West End Draught with Beef and Reef (steak, prawns and calamari).
• Rob Lewis, Royal Arms Hotel: Coopers Pale Ale with a toasted sandwich (while the pub’s revamping its food service!).

Tim Richards says:
While researching this article, I was surprised to discover that the original lower storeys of Port Adelaide’s older buildings were now underground, and had fun spotting doors that had once been first floor windows.