Who needs a minimalist pub? Any good country pub worth its salt really should have local history displayed on its walls. Like the curiosity pubs of old there should be plenty to entertain the ‘out of towners’ and help them understand a little about the locals and their way of life. Sepia photos of wool drays up to their axles in mud. Beaming young blokes draped in dead rabbits or staggering under the weight of a fish. Dead livestock nailed to the walls. Heads of deer, snarling wild pigs and crocodiles that didn’t get away.
At the Commercial Hotel in Woods Point in Victoria, we learnt that the residents sheltered from the 1939 fires down a mine tunnel right in the heart of town and that the publican must have been blessed with a good sense of humour as one of the best examples was “The Losers Shooting Trophy” awarded to Ken Shaw in 1994 for missing a samba deer at 10ft and a dingo at 15feet.
Discarded underwear and a horse skull, Lions Den Hotel, Cooktown, QldPoddy Dodgers Bar, Croydon, QldThe legendary Blue Heeler Hotel, Kynuna, QldHat collection at Wellshot Hotel, Ilfracombe, Qld includes one from distinguished Ilfracombe lass Governor General Quentin Bryce.Lantern display at The Pub with No Beer, Taylors Arm, NSWLike so many Queensland pubs, the Yandina Hotel was moved aboutWildlife at the Tatong Pub in Victoria’s North EastPrize cattle are the life blood of Rockhampton and this poor old bugger ended up on the wall at the Great Western Hotel.I wish they’d post the numbers of missed foxes at the Dingo Hotel in Cavendish, VicWild pig at the Club in the Scrub sand scrape golf course in the Grawin opalfields near Lightning Ridge, NSWA disillusioned goat at the Mulga Creek near Bourke, NSWDressed to kill at the Nindigully, QldThe sign says it all at the Sheepyard Inn, Grawin opalfields, NSWA salty that didn’t get away, Nindigully, Qld
Brilliant photos especially love the hats. Aren’t pubs and bars so much better if they show their history and have stuff to look at. Gives em more character.
itchingforhitching 
Great collection – not sure about the number of dead things, though
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Better dead than in your bed!
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🙂
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Wow what interesting things to look at! Haha
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Beats a load of old horse brasses any time!
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Oh gosh yes they certainly are a feature of English pubs.
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Brilliant photos especially love the hats. Aren’t pubs and bars so much better if they show their history and have stuff to look at. Gives em more character.
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And makes the grub taste better. 😋
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