JOIN THE CLUB

RATED 4 OUT OF 5 HELMETS

Club House Hotel

147 High St, Hillston NSW 2675 02 6967 1172

THIS FIRST APPEARED IN print in Paterson’s collection, “Old Bush Songs” in 1905 and it’s gotta be one of Anon’s best works. But not everyone who cut out from Roto Station headed across to the Murrumbidgee and thence to the smoke to drink until their money ran out.

In 1863 William Hill, a Roto stockman, only made it 50 miles south through Wiradjuri lands to a small township on the banks of the Lachlan. The traditional owners knew the area as ‘Melnunni’, meaning ‘red soil’, and to the whites it became known as ‘Redbank’.

Rather than hand over his cheque to a publican to be lambed down, William Hill set up his own establishment and called it simply the ‘Redbank Inn’.

Anyway, it was hot as hell when I rolled on into town and I could’ve done with being shot out of an irrigation pipe into a channel

He proved to be an extraordinary host, exemplary town figure, and prodigious drinker.