Masterful, this image by Chakko:
Terminus Hotel, Alison Whyte, Fred Whitlock
Today’s Good Weekend has a “2 of Us” profile by Bernadette Clohesy of the pair who own the Terminus Hotel, 39 year old Alison Whyte, and 41 year old Fred Whitlock. It’s certainly changing. Upstairs is the now mandatory fine dining restaurant, but there’s also a big party room giving out onto a large deck. Haven’t tried the restaurant, but the pub grub is superb. In fact, it’s a great pub. The place has a website which I have just discovered. Its history of the pub, which the pair purchased in 1996 — 11 years ago — is entertaining. It reveals that the original third partner is the bloke who bought and presumably did up the Healesville Hotel, another great pub, though mainly for the well heeled, unlike the egalitarian Terminus. I signed up for the mailing list so as not to miss out on events such as the 7 Culinary Disasters from the 70s for $70 dinner just gone.
Since the profile of the Whyte-Whitlock combo doesn’t seem to be available online, here are the bare bones, the bits at least not already covered by this newspaper (here and here). Whyte’s from Tasmania, Whitlock from New Zealand. They met at the Victorian College of the Arts. The class of people who transferred from Duntroon to the VCA might conceivably number one: just Whitlock. They have three children under 6: Rose, Milly and Atticus, and live in the Yarra Valley. That seems to have something to do with Whitlock getting stabbed in the head by a local: Continue reading “Terminus Hotel, Alison Whyte, Fred Whitlock”
Collingwood and Northcote Historical Societies; the history of local pubs
The Collingwood Historical Society now has a website. It is fairly minimalist for the time being, but no doubt it will grow. Their main event from the public’s point of view is the annual history walk, which I lamented missing last year. I discovered that there is an out of print book published by them, “Hotels of Collingwood”, which I must get a copy of: anyone want to lend me one? Though I must confess I still haven’t exactly read cover to cover J.M. Freeland’s The Australian Pub or Larkins and Muir’s Victorian Country Pubs or Griffin’s John Wren; A Life Reconsidered or Dr Kovesi’s book about the Abbotsford Convent’s Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Pitch Your Tents on Distant Shores.
Then I found the Darebin Historical Society’s website, which has a fair bit of stuff on it, including this little pamphlet on the earliest hotels in Darebin. And the pictured book seems to be in print and for sale for a mere $9.90.
The Collingwood Historical Society has put up 6 historical plaques, including this one on the front of what used to be the tobacconist which was the front for John Wren’s Tote in Johnston St.