Pub With No Beer Hotel in Taylors Arm

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Pub With No Beer Hotel

Pub With No Beer Hotel

Established as the Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1903. Changed name after the popularity of the song.

Gordon Parsons, aka the Yodelling Bushman was either given the poem as an anonymous penciling and revamped, it or actually penned it. Either way, the ditty was written at this Pub, and his mate Slim, a Kempsey boy, turned it into the song king of Pub Songs.

The story at this Pub, is that the song relates to the Pub itself and the time it was cut off by a flooding Kempsey river and no beer could get through.

Written by Gordon Parsons and recorded by Slim Dusty in 1957.
Covered by:
Ted Egan - 1976
The Clancy Brothers - 1988
Midnight Oil - 1988

Pub With No Beer Hotel

Photo 13/11/2009
Photo and story submitted by Jenny and Jamie, many Thanks

Hi, We visited the pub last year and spent the evening talking to 2 of the old timers. The history we were given by one of the fellows who has lived there all of his life came from his father who was a part of the event which gave the pub it's name. I think this guy's family was one of the first in the area.

There was a shortage of beer (possibly due to the floods but we didn't hear that part) and the publican would only serve the beer for himself and his mates, offering wine (as mentioned in the song) for the other patrons. This led some of them (including the guy mentioned above) to go to an aborigine camp (hence ''around the campfire") not too distant and joined them in drinking their 'home brew'. This is where and how the song originated. The characters mentioned in the song (including the dog waiting for his master) were actually based on some of the regulars at the pub.

We found this a fascinating place and were given much more of the local history by the old fella. - Jenny and Jamie