Pubs

6,130 pubs across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory — and barely two of them alike.

They run from three-storey sandstone corner hotels wedged into a city block to a single iron verandah at the end of a dirt road; from art deco tile and terrazzo on a suburban high street to a weatherboard shed that has served the same district for a hundred and fifty years. Some hold two hundred people on a Friday night. Some are the only building at the crossroads.

What nearly all of them share is the job they do. The pub is where a town holds its wakes and its wedding receptions, where the football club counts the gate and the brigade meets, where the bus pulls in and the mail comes through. In 936 of them there is not a single gaming machine — just a room, a bar, and whoever turns up.