The Local

04/09/2026

Part 1, we hit the old branch lines of the Riverina, stopping at some of its smallest towns and discovering the pubs, people and stories waiting at each stop.

03/09/2026

PUB OF THE WEEK — THE COMMERCIAL HOTEL, PORT KEMBLA

Thirty-eight years behind the same bar. That's how long the Despotovski family have been pouring b**rs at the Commercial on Wentworth Road — and this month, they've called last drinks on the ownership.

Wentworth was once one of the busiest strips in the Illawarra. Blokes knocked off from the steelworks mid-afternoon and the pubs filled to the door before the six o'clock closing bell, the swill spilling onto the footpath while the stacks smoked away behind them.

The Commercial watched all of it. It started life under a different name, listed in the old brewery records as the Grand, before it became the Commercial we know. Steel town money built it. Steel town blokes kept it standing.

Today it's a proper big pub. A 24-hour licence, sixteen rooms upstairs, a kitchen, a sports bar and a footy crowd that turns up whether the Dragons are winning or not. Blue collar to the bone, and unapologetic about it.

Now the family are handing the keys on. 52-54 Wentworth Road has hit the market through HTL Property, expressions of interest closing 17 September, and word is there's already been plenty of unsolicited interest from hoteliers who know exactly what a pub like this is worth in a town that's changing fast. Port Kembla is gentrifying. New families, new money, a harbour precinct getting a serious tidy-up. Whoever picks this one up gets a pub with a century of stories already in the walls.

Here's hoping they respect them.

Been to the Commercial? Tell us your story below.

This week's Pub of the Week comes to you courtesy of HTL Property, the country's leading pub and hotel brokers. Publican weighing up your next move? Ben Kennedy is the bloke to call — 0419 425 287.

31/08/2026

Our latest Vid 👇
One awesome adventure.
Thanks to Aussie Pubs for the invite

Welcome to The Pub Train! 250 strangers. Two vintage locomotives....

29/08/2026

Eight pubs. Forty-eight hours. Two vintage diesel locos and 250 people who wanted to see the Riverina the way it was meant to be seen — from the window of a train, with a b**r in hand.

We spent two days on The Pub Train, rolling through Junee, Temora, Ariah Park, Ardlethan, Griffith, Yanco, Grong Grong and Marrar. Every stop, a pub. Every pub, a town that has fought to keep its doors open.

What we found wasn't a party. It was a reminder. These bars are the last rooms in town where everyone still shows up. We met Dasher, who has more Riverina in him than most of us will ever have in a lifetime. We met Colleen. And we travelled with a bloke who was quietly making his way home, one stop at a time.

This is the biggest thing we've ever attempted, and it's out now on YouTube. Free, as always. No paid media behind it — just us, a camera and the people who welcomed us in.

If you get something out of it, do us one favour. Watch it, then send it to someone. A mate who grew up out that way. Your old man. The bloke who still drinks at your local. That's how this thing has grown from day one, and it's the only way it keeps going.

Because when the pub closes, the town dies.

Link in bio. Watch it, share it, tell a mate.
For the next Rail Pub Cruise visit Aussie Pubs

28/08/2026

STORY OF THE WEEK

My mum Kate and my step-father Steve are somewhere in Queensland right now, towing a van, with no particular plan.

I gave them one job. Stop at the pubs. Send me photos.

They keep delivering.

This one is the Springsure Hotel, Central Queensland.

Order the rissoles and they come with peas in the mash. Order the fish and the salad has beetroot AND pineapple on it. Homemade tartare. Proper chips.

The city killed all of that thirty years ago and now charges you thirty-four bucks to serve it back on a wooden board and call it heritage dining.

The bush just never stopped.

Eight rooms, a pool table, a b**r garden and a kitchen that never got the memo.

Thanks Mum. Thanks Steve. Keep them coming.

Now settle something for us.

Does your local still put peas in the mash?

Name the pub. We'll go and check.

Story of the Week comes to you courtesy of HTL Property, who understand what a country pub is worth better than anyone. If you're weighing up buying or selling one, get Ben Kennedy on the phone. 0419 425 287.

27/08/2026

A woman built this pub. A woman still runs it.

Mitchell, Queensland. 587 kilometres west of Brisbane on the Warrego, where the country starts opening up and the towns get further apart.

In 1907 Mary Richards put up a two-storey hotel on Cambridge Street. Thirty bedrooms, dining rooms, four sitting rooms, balconies on both frontages to catch whatever breeze was going. She'd already held the licence at the Downshire Arms across the road, so she knew exactly what a bush town needed. When it opened in July 1908 they threw a dance and the Mitchell Town Band played from the balcony.

May 1927, it burned to the ground. Show week. The place was full and there were more than 200 people in town. Took the fruit shop and the billiard saloon with it.

They built it again on the same dirt.

It's still there. Locals call it The Rock. Fire going in the dining room, two pool tables, b**r garden out the back, cold bottleshop out the front. Mitchell's only locally owned pub, and it has been looking after the town since 2003.

Behind the bar is Alison. Ask anyone who has stopped in Mitchell and her name comes up before the menu does.

Nearly 120 years on, a woman is still running Mary Richards' pub.

If you're heading west, pull up at Hotel Richards, 67 Cambridge Street. Tell her The Local sent you.

26/08/2026

If your name is Elaine, this is your pub.

There's a town in Victoria called Elaine. Two hundred and thirty-odd people, halfway between Ballarat and Geelong. And for years, women named Elaine have been pulling off the Midland Highway just to get a photo under the sign.

The pub's been shut. It's about to open again.

So here's the plan. Every Elaine in this country needs to be standing out the front on opening day. Every Elaine, one photo, under the sign.

Tag every Elaine you know. We'll see you there.

25/08/2026

Name a more Aussie pub than The Larrikin Hotel.

I dare you.

Bowen, North Queensland. Corner of Herbert and Powell.

Every other pub in this country got named after a dead king, a bank or a boat. The Royal. The Commercial. The Exchange. The Imperial.

Someone in Bowen looked at the crowd in the bar and named the place after them instead.

Here's the part that gets me.

In 2007 Baz Luhrmann rolled into Bowen with hundreds of cast and crew and rebuilt the entire waterfront as 1940s Darwin for the movie Australia. Kidman and Jackman walking the main street. Half the town signed up as extras. Keith Urban played the wrap party. The place started calling itself Bowenwood.

Then Hollywood bombed its fake Darwin, packed the set into trucks, and went home.

The Larrikin didn't move. Public bar, TAB ticking over, bistro out the back, roast and veg that won't break you. They pour their own b**r. Larrikin L***r.

Same family behind that bar for more than twenty years.

Movies come and go. Film crews come and go. The pub on the corner is the thing that's still standing when everyone else has driven out of town.

That's what a country pub does. It just keeps opening.

So go on. Name me a more Australian pub name than The Larrikin.

Comments are open. I'll wait.