Sink a pot at Australia's oldest pubs

Push open the saloon style doors in any small Australian town and you'll be hit with the familiar smell of beer soaked carpets, frying parmigianas and a whiff of decades-old cigarette smoke.

The locals, perched around the bar, pause their cracking yarns to whip around and take a look at the newcomer.

Tradies in the back corner rack up another game of pool while waiting for their counter meals to cook.

Sivar Hartman, a 27-year-old Dutch backpacker, smelt the distinctive fragrance walking into Nindigully Pub in rural Queensland for his first shift.

"It smells like a real outback pub, you can smell the Australian dirt and the old wonky wooden floorboards," he said.

"I love the pub, I love the people and the history. It's a really Australian place.

"The same locals come in everyday, sit in the same chair and order the same drink," he said.

And that drink is XXXX Gold.

Akubras belonging to Thallon's early sheep shearers line the walls of this historic pub built in 1864.

Almost 160 years later the locals continue to pull up a stool at the bar.

The well-known pub continues to attract big crowds with more than 1500 people expected to visit during the Nindigully Pig Races on November 25.

The pub is famed for its share-style burgers containing kilos of barbecued ground beef but visitors are advised to call ahead and pre-order.

Tattersalls Hotel, licenced in 1854, is the centrepiece of Armidale's outdoor mall in the rolling green hills of northern NSW.

The hotel has undergone a massive transformation into a glamourous gastro pub winning four awards in the 2023 Australian Hotel Association NSW Excellence Awards including Regional Hotel of the Year.

Stop in for a steak sandwich in their highly commended restaurant or catch some live music in their beer garden.

Manager Mitch Shaw said the New England Pale Ale, brewed 20 kilometres down the highway in Uralla, was the local favourite.

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The Ship Inn on Hunter Street, erected in 1846, is one of Newcastle's oldest pubs.

The former bank and community organisation meeting hall has a rich history in the blue collar town.

The pub's licensee James Hannell met with the "advocates for the incorporation of the borough of Newcastle" at The Ship Inn and he was elected as the town's first mayor in 1859.

It now houses a gastro pub with a Mexican menu and extensive cocktail list including the 'Shippy Bloody Mary' and the 'Flamin' Galah'.

Merrijig Inn in Victoria's charming seaside town of Port Fairy is one of the state's oldest pubs.

The historic stone cottage was built in the mid 1880s to face the town's original jetty and tempt passing visitors to the Moyne River.

Chef Tanya Connellan cooks a farm to table menu featuring hearty classic such as house-made pappardelle with winter greens and rolled rabbit saddle with cannellini beans.

New Norfolk's Bush Inn has celebrated some monumental moments in Australian history since it opened in 1815.

The Commonwealth's first telephone call was made inside the 26-room hotel and Dame Nellie Melba stayed and sang at the heritage pub when she visited Tasmania in 1924.

Enjoy a pot of Cascade lager and a classic counter meal with the ghosts, and locals, who haunt the bar.