Katoomba now Australia’s Booze Capital

Thanks to council approval, Katoomba is blessed (or cursed) with no fewer than 18 liquor outlets and venues within stumbling distance of the high street (Katoomba Street).

1. The Carrington Hotel main bar open to the public at 15-47 Katoomba Street
2. Harp and Fiddle (Irish Pub) at 86 Bathurst Rd (owned by The Carrington)
3. Old City Bank Bar and Brasserie at 15 Katoomba Street (owned by The Carrington)
4. Carrington Cellars off Parke Street (also owned by The Carrington)
5. Katoomba Family Hotel bar at 15 Parke Street
6. Bottlemart drive-through at 15 Parke Street (owned by the Family Hotel)
7. Gearin Hotel at 1 Goldsmith Place
8. Liquorland on Pioneer Place on the corner of Waratah Street (owned by Wesfarmers)
9. Liquorland at 30-32 Parke Street outside Coles inside the shopping mall (owned by Wesfarmers)
10. Station Bar at 287 Bathurst Rd outside Katoomba railway station
11. Avalon Cocktail Bar at 18 Katoomba Street
12. Katoomba Wines at 42 Katoomba Street
13. The Bootlegger Bar at 92 Bathurst Road Katoomba
14. Aunty Ed’s Restaurant and Bar at 122 Katoomba Street
15. Dan Murphy’s mega bottle shop at 136 Bathurst Road (confidentially approved by Council on 12 October 2010 – owned by Woolworths)
16. Mountains Culture Beer brewery and bar (‘brewpub’) at 23-25 Parke Street (opened in October 2019)
17. Aldi Liquor at 201-205 Katoomba Street (approved by council in August 2020 and owned by a German grocery chain)
18. Katoomba RSL at 86 Lurline Street which was rebuilt after a fire, re-opening in August 2019 much bigger than previously now featuring 4 bars and bottle shop.

So there’s no excuse not to drink up!  Pub Crawl Tourism here we come?

There is a direct positive correlation between the number of liquor outlets in a given location and the increased incidence of alcohol-fueled violence and property damage.  The problems caused by particularly young people drinking to excess in the Upper Blue Mountains is well known to local police and to local Blue Mountains Council.

It’s no surprise that Katoomba has an Alcoholics Anonymous group holding regular weekly meetings, except Blue Mountains Council closed its regular venue, the Katoomba Neighbourhood Centre, due to the pandemic excuse.

Yet with a touch of hypocrisy, local council in 2017 gazetted the following ‘Alcohol Free Zone Map’ to take effect to 20th December 2021.

An alternative venue has since been provided by the charity of the Church, doing Council’s job.

Since the pandemic lockdowns and unemployment, there’s been a considerable increase in alcohol consumption across the community and a growing presence of drinking in the streets and empty beer bottles left around in brown paper bags.  Noice!

A recent survey by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation has found that 12 percent of Australians have begun consuming alcohol on a daily basis since the coronavirus pandemic began a few months back. The survey showed that many Australians who did not drink regularly before have picked up the habit.  One in ten reported they were consuming over ten standard drinks per week. A large number reported they were drinking almost regularly and drinking more than what they did before.

And Australians have hit the bottle with gusto while at home during the pandemic, drinking an unprecedented amount of alcohol and bumping liquor sales to record levels. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the country’s alcohol retailers turned over a record $15.6 billion in sales in 2020 – an increase of 26.7 per cent or $3.3 billion more than in 2019.

Dan Murphy’s in Katoomba features a mega bottle shop and thanks to pandemic mental health issues, its booze business is booming!

 

Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education chief executive Caterina Giorgi says.

“During COVID-19 we’ve seen alcohol retailers and online delivery companies engage in prolific marketing that promotes using alcohol as a way to cope during the pandemic,” she said.

Alcohol retail stores – 65 per cent of which are owned by supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths – in December turned over almost $2 billion, making it the highest earning month in Australian history.

Pallets of booze arriving by the daily truckload!

 

Since December 2020, China has officially imposed a 200%+ tariffs on all wine imported from Australia, so unprofitable export wine is currently cheap and in abundance at the big boy liquor outlets in Katoomba like Dan Murphys and Liquorland.

An average 4 litre cask of wine at the big boys retails for a bargain $15.

Ye ‘ol Flagon Days are back, all but bladders in convenient cartons with a plastic tap!

 

What would the good burghers of the temperance movement of yesteryear think today of the demise of Katoomba and its dilapidated amenity and proliferation of liquor outlets?

The Ritz nursing home in Leura was originally the ‘Leura Coffee Palace’ (image below) and the Mountain Heritage Hotel in Katoomba was originally ‘The California’.  Both establishments were coffee palaces prohibiting alcohol sales and consumption on site and were a prime part of the Temperance Movement in the Blue Mountains.  The Temperance Movement was a social movement from the late 19th Century which observed the increasing prevalence of alcohol-related harm afflicting society at the time sought to stem the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

In Australia, this social trend grew in response to the boozy Gold Rush period of the 1850s to 1870s.  New townships at the time were notorious for having dozens of pubs each.  The gold rush town of Hill End in Central New South Wales by 1872 had 27 pubs!

Perhaps this icon could be positioned on the roof of Council’s Chambers?  Crazier developments have been approved like council chambers where it is, isolated away from the centre of Katoomba.

Blue Mountains Council years ago decided to relocate itself away from its high street base to a Taj Mahal 4 storey mesa in ‘north’ Katoomba since the highway was widening and realigned during the 1980s.

We remember Hartley’s Barry Morris MLA fondly – he bombed the joint in 1992 (note the damage to Council’s uninviting).

Blue Mountains Council has chosen to even compete with local coffee houses, approving itself a pop-up coffee barista station in the council chambers entry foyer.  What an affront to Katoomba cafés as council already charges exorbitant commercial rates to café landlords, then seeks to go into competition with the café tenants?

May be their next move will be to self approve a liquor license during one of their secret meetings and usher in liquor outlet number 19 within stumbling distance of Katoomba’s high street – naming it ‘The Lord Mayor’s Arms‘ or ‘Barry Morris’s Memorial Drive Through‘ perhaps?

---

Postscript:

 

As of February 2023, there are not 18 liquor outlets and venues in Katoomba, but now 19 liquor outlets as Scenic World has presumably obtained a liquor licence and local council permission to opening The Terrace.

This is a new use of its escarpment top viewing platform at its tourist centre at 1 Violet Street Katoomba.

The new concept has been promoted in the local Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper, obviously targeting locals who read it.  Here’s the promo:

‘BEST MOUNTAIN VIEWS WITH THE BEST MOUNTAIN BREWS.’

‘NO CAR? NO WORRIES!  LOOK OUT FOR THE FREE HOP-ON-HOP-OFF BUS OPERATING FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS 5-8PM.’

Stops (every 20 minutes) between 5pm and 8pm:

• Katoomba Street
• Mountain Culture Brewery
• Katoomba RSL (Lurline Street)
• Katoomba Night Lit Walk/Cascades
• Terrace Bar & Cafe (Violet Street)

 

So that’s nine trips a night every Friday and Saturday.  If demand takes off, then are the hours and days to be extended, the number of buses and trip frequency increased?

So Pub Crawl Tourism in Katoomba has been approved by Council.  Where was the  community consultation Mayor Greenhill?

When Scenic World was granted its operating licence, it was to be a daytime business only.

One wonders what the local residents think of this new noisy nightclub impost upon their night time ambience.  Local residents up until now would surely have embraced the evening peace and quiet after the 5pm closure and the last buses departed for the day.

Who is going to clean up all the empty beer bottles and cigarette butts along Katoomba Falls Reserve Night Lit Walk?

What next?  24/7 opening like many Maccas these days?  Skyway Boozeway?