Post Office Club Hotel, formerly
the Buck’s Head Hotel
1871 –
306 St Kilda Road, corner Inkerman Street, St Kilda
MEL: 58 C10
Post Office Club Hotel, 2004
This was most likely the hotel in High Street (now known as
St Kilda Road) whose license
was renewed on 11 December 1871 by William
Farmer. When the St Kilda Council selected the site
for the Post Office, it was referred to as ‘opposite to the Buck’s Head Hotel’,
and the hotel eventually took the name of this landmark.
Owned
by the Davis family between 1962 and 2002, it was a
favourite spot of several colourful local, but not always law-abiding,
characters, including Harrison, Twistie, Nugent,
‘Pretty Dulcie’ Markham and Big Fatty Burns. One
criminal regular was Joe Collins who lived in St Kilda
nearly all his life: after travelling to the United States with boxer Darcy Duigan
in order to avoid conscription, Collins was caught robbing a liquor store and
spent seven years in Alcatraz.Long-time
barman Stan Brown remembers putting guns belonging to the clientele in paper
bags with their names clearly marked, and placing them behind the bar in the
1960s!During this time, SP bookies
operated in the lane behind the hotel and beer was sold illegally over the back
fence on Sundays.
