In Part 2 of OUTinPerth’s look at Perth’s gay pubs and clubs, Jo Darbyshire journeys back to the days of disco.
‘Huck Finns at the top end of William Street, in a two storey small block, was the most famous and outrageous night club in the early seventies! (I just about lived there)… Terrific drag queen shows in those days; with the most famous ‘girls’ being Tabitha – what a top person s/he was; Fifi – used to do comedy and was hilarious; and another young Indian who had won Australia’s top model of the year only to be ‘defrocked’ when she was discovered to be he (even the dykes used to drool over that one). It was ALWAYS packed… one of the main things I remember was all the boys in the women’s toilet putting on their make up and all the girls in their checked shirts heading into the men’s to avoid the queues. It was, m’ dear, a rough spot but fun, frequented by the most eclectic mix of butch dykes and their femme girlfriends, usually working girls, madams (Shirley Finn was a regular), lots of drag queens, ordinary lesbians and gay boys, and in the later stages – hets who came to look…’ KB
‘There is a new nightclub, recently opened called El Greco’s… better known already as Tiffany’s Place, it caters for the Camp population of Perth… Tiffany does the floor show… open Friday and Saturday nights 9pm-3am… do drive up the great Eastern Highway until you reach Belmont Avenue, turn right and you are there!’
CAMP Circular, June 1974
‘As for Wine bars; there was The Bushranger, also The Spanish Onion up on Beaufort St in the mid 70s. Holly’s in Mosman Park and then in 1976 – Trish’s Winebar, run by Trish and Peter Lyle, which is now the Old Court Wine Bar. We used to have a smorgasbord for $4 – all home cooked meals on a Sunday night.’ H
‘Holly’s was rather fun… you all had to put a woman’s hat on when you arrived. He had a hat-stand at the door and you were asked to select one. It was a mixed crowd but lots of gay people. You know the straights seemed to like to put the hats on more than the gays…’ TT
‘Then there was the Paddington and the Tube Bar, which is the downstairs bar at the King Edward Hotel. Ross Calloway was a piano player down there. There was also Shaftos – Shafto Lane. Then from 1979 to 1981 we went to a place called Carnaby’s, also in Murray Street, which is part of the Criterion Hotel chain.’ RC
‘Nowhere lasted long. Most hotels were more than happy to have you there because there was money coming through the tills, but as soon as they had a change of management, they would come in and say, “No, don’t want them in” – so out we went! We used to get our own little researchers and they’d say, “Great little bar down here. They don’t have a problem with us going down there,” so you would all congregate down there until a couple of queens had a bloody fight and the manager would say, “Right, that’s it, out you go,” and we had to find somewhere else.’ RC
‘It was when the Governor Broome in William Street (up near the Horseshoe Bridge) started a women’s only session that it really started to segregate. Prior to that the les, fem, rad, seps had women’s dances every so often, but the bar dykes wouldn’t be seen dead there unless they had started shagging a femmo (dreadful defection both ways in those days – but sex will out!)… The mixed session then went onto the Clarenden on property owned by the Catholic Church in Fitzgerald street, Northbridge.’ KB
‘In 1975 Dennis Marshall and Walter Furlong bought the lease for the Top Hat and reopened as Connections. They planned it as a gay bar and hired gay managers. One – James Phillips, went on to open the Red Parrot for Dennis Marshall in the late 70s. There was also a manager called Colin Griffiths, now living in Thailand, and Brian Sorenson – he died of AIDS, a fabulous manager. Another woman Sue Flett, briefly the manager at Connies went on to open La Fontaine at 434 William Street, in the early 80s.’ RC
‘Beaux Coffee Lounge in the Busy Bee Arcade, off William St was run by Peter Aarons and John Gouges, in late 70s. It was a coffee shop catering for the gays and lesbians, who met there before and after going to Connections. It sometimes stayed open till 6 in the morning …’ TT
‘Tramps Night Club, in Murray St, had a gay night once a week in the early 70s, and then there was Feathers, Sunday nights food and dancing – on Roe St, behind Connections, under the sauna.’ SR
‘Feathers opened in 1978 – it was the time of great disco and handkerchiefs were very big then. People wore them in their back pockets to say what sort of sexual experience they enjoyed… It was pre-AIDS days, so people didn’t think twice about having quick naughties. I think we’re missing a place like Feathers now. People are getting married and living out in the suburbs…there’s a heck of a lot of people walking their dog in the park between 6-9, who if they had the choice, would be at Feathers – if there was a Feathers.’ H
Next month, OUTinPerth and the Northbridge History Project look at the IT bars that saw us through the fluorescent 80s, the grungy 90s and on to today.
Conversations are with Peter Robinson, Sally Rowell, Karen Buck and Zoe Hart, Donna S, Kris Ritchie, Ted Thurlowe and from oral history Interviews involving Ray Currell, Triz, Ivan King, Hollywood, Alex Buchanan, Ernst, and Johan Knollema.
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Do you remember these venues or have stories about your experiences in others? Email northbridgehistoryproject@gmail.com or check out www.myspace.com/northbridgehistory.
