Newcastle Hoteliers Win Lockout Extension

By Ian Neubauer

Nine Newcastle hoteliers claimed a minor victory yesterday after NSW licensing authorities extended mandatory lockouts and trading hours by thirty minutes.

Hotels now subject to a revised lockout of 1:30am are the Cambridge Hotel, Civic Hotel, Ducks Nuts Hotel, Crown & Anchor Hotel, Fanny’s of Newcastle, Queens Wharf Brewery, Customs House Hotel, Grand Hotel and the King Street Hotel. 

The Crown and Anchor and Customs House Hotels also had their trading hours extended to 3:00am, while the other seven venues had their trading hours extended to 3:30am.

The venues have taken a financial beating since trading hours were slashed by as much as two hours on March 20 following ongoing complaints by residents and police that late-night trading had turned the inner-city into a hot bed of anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related violence after dark.

Five inner city Newcastle hotels were excluded from Tuesday’s decision and will continue to be subject to 1:00am lockouts. These are the Great Northern Hotel, MJ Finnegans, Clarendon Hotel, Hotel CBD and the Lucky Country Hotel.

Lucky Country Hotel general manager, Sandy Stocks, said that while she agrees late-night trading had to be rolled back for the benefit of the wider community, the lockout regime had backfired and was fostering more violence.

“I have had women banging on my front door begging to come in because men were following them and I couldn’t help them. I have also had a lot of damage done to the front of the pub by people who can’t come in after curfew. Things have gotten a lot worse since it came in,” she said.

“I understand there had to be some changes and 5:00am trading hours had to be made a thing of the past. But the way they have gone about it has been a bit of a band-aid [solution] and not addressed the real issues: a lack of education and public transport.”

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