Back Roads host Heather Ewart charts evolution of pubs from male-dominated drinking holes to community hubs
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We've copped a hammering in the past year. From dry spells in parts of the Top End to floods and more floods along the eastern seaboard and inland, in New South Wales and Victoria.
Many of us have never seen it quite like this before. Lives lost, homes, land and roads ravaged, thousands of dead livestock, crops ruined. As we count the huge losses, now we all brace ourselves for the fire season.
The one constant for so many country people, the one haven where recovery plans can be organised, tales of woe shared and encouragement given to soldier on together, is the local pub.
You don't have to enjoy a beer or two to know this.
When all else is lost, if the pub is still standing, you can be sure the patrons have got your back.
And so, it has been this Christmas and new year that residents in flood-stricken areas gather to lick their wounds and hope for a better year ahead.
I grew up on a farm near the Goulburn River at Murchison in Victoria where the bridge into town was closed for several days back in mid-October as locals desperately sandbagged in preparation for the river bursting its banks.
The town by and large dodged a bullet, though some streets and farmlands, including my cousins', were not so fortunate.
Traditionally, the Murchison East Railway Hotel by the grain silos — "The East" as we all call it — was where family and friends always got together at year's end on completion of the wheat harvest.
As in so many areas of Victoria and neighbouring NSW, there wasn't a bumper crop to celebrate this time, but the need for company was stronger than ever.
Murchison East publicans Paul and Emilia Golding, with their son Mitch, put on a free community barbecue to thank all the volunteers who worked tirelessly during the floods to save their town.
"The pub is the hub of our community," Paul Golding told me.
"People need to have a chin wag together and know that we stand by each other.
"We're so grateful to the volunteers in the SES (State Emergency Service) and the CFA (Country Fire Authority).
"It's been really tough, but we've got to be positive about the future. We need somewhere to meet, and the pub is it."
Over the years, many pubs in country Australia have become community hubs. A place for footy and netball awards nights, fundraisers, and music. During bushfires, some have even become headquarters for firefighters.
But it wasn't always this way.
When I was a kid, pubs were strictly the domain of blokes. There were dingy "ladies lounges" out the back for women, but few dared enter. Children would be delivered raspberry lemonades in the car park while their farmer dads partook in an icy cold beer. If we whinged loudly enough, we'd get a packet of chips as well.
Stream more of Heather's adventures on iview.
It was the era of the six o'clock swill, when pubs shut their doors at 6pm sharp. The government's idea, a hangover from World War I, was to get men home to their families in time to share an evening meal.
In the city it was common practice when workers finished work at five to skull several beers before six.
Trawl through ABC news and current affairs archives and you'll find many a bloke back in the 60s defending this arrangement and the ban on women in public bars.
"Women should be home making the tea for their husbands," said one drinker. And on the push by women to be allowed in: "Bars are intended for men to drink at and this is the final threshold to cross to infringe men's rights."
Thankfully times have changed.
By 1966 in Victoria, hours were extended to 10pm, and it was legal for women to drink at the bar instead of serving behind it.
It took until 1970 in Queensland, five years after protesters Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar of Brisbane's Regatta Hotel.
As I travel on Back Roads I thank those trailblazers who won the fight to allow women to enter any pub they like around the country, including my very first local, the Murchison East Hotel.
Over the years, I've learned firsthand what makes a great Australian pub.
And I reckon it's a fine thing that pubs are now places for everyone, whether you prefer a beer or a lemon squash, in commiseration or celebration, after fires and floods, births and deaths, victories and losses.
They're the great leveller and a reflection of where and how we live.
A new series of Back Roads kicks off on Monday, January 2 with a TV special celebrating the 100th episode.
The theme is the Great Australian Pub — its history in Australian culture, the yarns told at the bar and more stories about influential pubs across the country.
Watch on ABC TV at 8pm or any time after that on ABC iview.
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Back Roads host Heather Ewart charts evolution of pubs from male-dominated drinking holes to community hubs – ABC News
