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Pubs and hotels

Find tools and resources to help you research pubs and hotels in Victoria. Includes information on the history of Victorian liquor licensing laws.

Your Librarian

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Sarah Matthews
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Librarian

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Terri Berends
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Contact me via our online reference service citing my name and the title of this guide

With thanks

The authors of this guide would like to thank the following State Library staff who have contributed to this guide:

Kylie Best, Senior Librarian, Information Services

Ann Copeland, Librarian, Family History

Alex Gionfriddo, Librarian, Information Services

John Stevens, Librarian, Acquisition and Description

Pubs and hotels have always played a big part in local communities; hosting community meetings and events, council meetings, budding musicians, poets & comedians, and in the 19th century, even dead bodies!

This guide will direct you to tools and resources to help you research all things pubs, including discovering the history of liquor licensing laws in Victoria, finding out the history of a pub or hotel in your local area, researching a publican in your family tree, or discovering a hotel's history as a performance venue.

Click onto the tabs across the top of this page for more detailed information on each topic.

We hope this guide gives you answers to your questions or points you towards resources which may help.

Good luck with your research!

Black and white photo of single storey building with a verandah. Name on the porch roof is'Star Hotel'. Two men are standing on the porch with another seated on the verandah railing. There are trees and hills in the background.

View of Star Hotel Harrietville; H2016.406/3

Looking across intersection towards corner hotel: double storey brick building, two pillared balconies on upper level with pediments, octagonal tower at roof at corner; corner entrance with name above door

Sir Robert Peel Hotel, Collingwood; H84.408/2 

Shows double storey building on street corner, window at upper level painted with sign: Builders' Arms Hotel and a compass, beneath the name S. Drew / licensed victualler. Man, and woman standing on left, a man standing with a little boy on right. One man identified as Silas Drew.

Builder's Arms Hotel, Portland, ca 1890 - 1900; H2005.34/156

Looking across dirt road to the corner of a two storey hotel, with a flag pole on the roof.

Dickson's Prince of Wales Hotel, St. Kilda, ca 1867 - 1873; H82.165/2

Exterior of Prince of Wales Hotel in Fitzroy Street somewhere between 1920 and 1954

Prince Of Wales Hotel, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Vic; H32492/27

Exterior of Craig's Hotel in Lydiard Street Ballarat. Horses and carriages are parked on the dirt road out the front. Men and women stand in 19th century dress on first floor balcony looking out at the street. Two men in top hats stand outside hotel in street. Another man dressed in an apron and chef's hat stands nearby.

Craig's Hotel, Ballarat, ca 1866. Photo by Archibald Vincent Smith; H1757

Looking across intersection of Sydney and Brunswick Roads towards double storey corner building, windows on upper storey double slung sash windows with pediments. Proprietor's name above the door and at the roof line reads Wm. Lawrie. The name of the hotel is printed along the wall under the roof line. A woman is standing in the doorway and there are men standing on the path.

Sarah Sands Hotel, Brunswick, Victoria, ca 1900; H2003.86

Landscape with double storey hotel at the fork of a river, people seated on the river bank on right, painted on roof: Bloxsidge's Hotel. In the upper left hand side of the painting the first St Nicholas Anglican Church can be seen, built in 1874.

Bloxsidge's Hotel, Mordialloc, Vic. Watercolour painting by William Tibbits; H30809

Street scene showing three storey building with adjoining buildings. On the left is the Criterion sale rooms. On the right is are the F. Cooper & Co. and James J. Blundell & Co. businesses. There are pedestrians, horses, carriages and a paper boy in the street.

Criterion Hotel, Gt. Collins Street, Melbourne, 1854. Lithograph by S.T.Gill; H12610

Looking towards double storey corner building with pediments on the roofline of each wall. There is a corner door with a small tower on the roof. The name of the hotel is painted on the wall between the ground floor and the first floor.

Napier and Moor Streets, Fitzroy - looking north across the intersection towards the Napier Hotel; CUAFY33/2

Photo of a double storey hotel with wrought iron lacework around upper verandah. there is a yellow tour bus parked on the road in front of the building.

Hansen's Hotel Orient, Bairnsdale, Vic, ca 1955; H2006.116

Melbourne's hotels 1870: in the heyday

Melbourne's hotels 1870: in the heyday. Produced by Musetime Maps. Design, drafting & calligraphy by Freelance Ink

The corner guy

Black and white photo of guy sitting at a bar smoking a cigarette. There is a poster advertising a band in the background and an old-fashioned telephone siting on the bar.

"The Real Australian" or "The Corner Guy," Punters Club, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Paintings, ca 1988. Photo by Maggie Diaz. This work is in copyright; H2015.33/13