CLIFTON'S former Imperial Hotel sits on the cliff edge a sorry site.
Its license was 'frozen' by owners WIN TV after the closure of Lawrence Hargrave Drive caused a dramatic loss in business, forcing Publican Cornelia Ignjatovic to call last drinks on November 23, 2003.
The popular tourists road was closed to vehicle traffic in July 2003 and remained so for over two and a half years while the State Government built a $40 million bridge to bypass the land slide prone thoroughfare.
The original Imperial Hotel (large single storey building pictured above ) had a few teething problems when it was rebuilt from a single storey weatherboard inn into the two storey structure that remains boarded up today at Clifton.
Originally built for Henry and Mary Kane, the Imperial was licensed and leased by 30-year-old Wollongong baker, Alexander Osborne in April 1884.
The Imperial was Clifton's second public house, joining the Clifton Inn, which had been the village's original watering hole since 1879.
Big changes were in the wind during 1910 when the Kanes sold the 12-roomed inn to Sydney Brewers, Reschs for £1200.
The brewery replaced the inn with an impressive two-storeyed brick hotel, with 25 rooms and five bathrooms, during 1911.
The contractor had a few problems during construction work, the local press reported, when explosives were needed to blast away sandstone for the foundations, and local 'brickies' "would not think of starting work for under 13 shillings and sixpence a day"!
The thirsty souls of Clifton were satisfied when a temporary bar was built when the original inn was demolished and work proceeded on the new pub.
The South Coast Times reported in August 1911: "The bar portion of the new Imperial erected at Clifton for (licensee) Mr Williams was expected to be in use this weekend. It has been constructed in accordance with the most modern ideas…"
George Williams, the new host, was operating one of the regions most up to date hotels by Christmas 1911, but further problems were to strike the pub.
A savage storm ripped the roof off the pub in 1913 causing an estimated £2,000 worth of damage. The newspapers at the time reported that it was nothing short of a miracle that no one was killed. "Men sitting in the hotel parlours were smothered with falling plaster and broken glass from the gas fittings overhead, and many thought their last moment had come. As soon as the last gust had passed, a rush was made for the bathrooms occupied by wives and friends, and, strange to say, although almost every bedroom in the hotel had been more or less wrecked, no one was injured", The Daily Telegraph reported.
Just two years later the drinkers at the Imperial were put in darkness when in some "unaccountable way" the gas plant caught fire. "Kerosene lamps have had to be requisitioned for the time being", the press reported.
The Imperial's bar has been home to many a character since opening on the cliff edge at Clifton almost 120 years ago. Many a ratbag has downed a schooner or two over the bar.
Stories of blokes bringing snakes into their local bar are quite common in Australian folklore. The Imperial Hotel is no different.
Poor old Aubrey Grieveson was found dead on the road in front of the Imperial back in 1914, which immediately sparked an inquiry.
Coal miner, Frank Tully called into the pub one December day in 1914 after catching a snake in the nearby escarpment bush. Opening a bag, he showed the crowded bar the snake and asked if it was venomous. Barman, Fred Atkinson, doing his job, quickly told Tulley to get the snake out. But, Grieveson, with a few under his belt, was adamant the snake wasn't deadly and stuck his finger in the reptile's mouth.
Needless to say he was wrong and he paid the consequences.
Today the historic Imperial sits empty, neglected and waiting patiently for its license to be re-activated.
In October 2009, WIN TV lodged a development application with Wollongong City Council for a car park beside the former pub, indicating that moves may be in the wind to reopen the Imperial. Watch this space!
