Sydney is a truly magnificent city, blessed with friendly people, great restaurants and one of the most spectacular natural settings of any city in the world. But there’s one area that Sydney is well below par, and it’s even led the proud locals to admit – shock, horror – that they’re being beaten by rival city Melbourne.

Sydney is a terrible place for a drink.

Sydney: Sure it’s pretty, but can you find a bloody drink anywhere?

Until now your choices for an after-work tipple or a lazy Sunday afternoon session have been the pub (big, noisy, packed beer barns) and the club (big, noisy, packed beer barns… with poker machines).

All that is soon to change with the introduction of legislation aimed at reducing the licence fee for small venues. Current fees (around $15,000) are set to plummet to as little as $500 for small-capacity licensed premises. The bill, introduced to Parliament by Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore, states that Sydney should boast “a night economy that is diverse and in line with other cities - Australian cities like Melbourne and Perth, and European, American and Asian cities, such as Paris, Florence, San Francisco and Shanghai.â€

Supporters of the change are excitedly predicting a rebirth of Sydney nightlife. No longer will those wanting a quiet drink with friends be forced to run the raucous gauntlet of George Street on a Saturday night. Smaller European-style bars and wine bars (so successful in Melbourne since similar licensing deregulation in the mid-1980s) will soon grace the back lanes and third-storeys of CBD buildings.

Not everyone is welcoming the change. Predictably, the Australian Hotels Association is opposing the liberalisation of licensing laws, with the Association’s president stating, “We (people from Sydney) don’t want to sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book.†It seems, though, that as with cultured cities the world over, some Sydneysiders want to do just that.

As usual in a bar fight in Australia, the last word goes to a Labor Party identity. This time it was former Prime Minister and withering orator Paul Keating, who weighed in on the issue late last year: “The pub culture in Sydney is stultifyingly bad. It’s raucous and it’s noisy in the Klondike-like saloons. All that’s missing is Lola Montez. The idea that you have to go into these swills to get a drink, and not in some more beguiling place, is a shame.â€

Bring it on!

–John Ryan

Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s tours and things to do in Sydney, including Sydney food, bar & nightlife tours. Also read John’s previous post about finding a decent place to drink in Melbourne.

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