Laughs, mayhem, murder and the best pub stories are just a snippet of what you can expect at Peter Cox and Stephen Holt’s “historical and hysterical pub tour”.
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Launched in December, the two Wagga residents delve into history and take about 20 trip-goers on a two-hour tour along Fitzmaurice Street starting at the Hampden Cellar Bar.
“In Wagga, at one time, there was over 60 pubs, so we thought the history of them would be interesting and find out about all the different characters along Fitzmaurice, where I think there were 14,” Mr Holt said.
“I love telling the true stories that you think couldn’t have happened, like murder and people dying instantly from circumstances and events that happened at the time.”
The tour stops for a drink at pubs along Fitzmaurice Street, while learning about the history, and Mr Holt said in this heat, “a drink is well-deserved”.
“We’ve found that in the last few tours we’ve done is that people want to be involved; they shout-out and you ad-lib and have banter with the audience, which creates a whole new experience,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of research and I hand that over to Peter Cox, who spent majority of the time researching.
“We bring characters throughout our tour with lots of humour and we try to make a laugh out of terrible stories.”
Mr Holt spoke of the history behind Romano’s Hotel, which was owned by a few people but one of them was Azzalin Orlando Romano (1894-1972).
“He owned the famous racehorse Bernborough, who won 15 consecutive races and at the time it was better than Phar Lap,” he said.
“Romano’s had a mural painted of the horse, what has been painted over, but it was painted by Norman Lindsay’s brother, a lesser-known Lindsay.”
Also bringing the history and entertainment is Mr Cox, who said the hospitality industry in Wagga has changed over the years.
“I’ve been in Wagga since ‘86 and pubs come and go all the time, and we’ve just lost The Home through various ways, but we’re probably getting less hotels, their numbers are shrinking,” he said.
“I just like the opportunity to present some wonderful history of Wagga, especially the Fitzmaurice, quite fascination about the history of the area, including the flooding, bridges and the pubs.
“It’s a great chance for people to talk about it, hear about it, see it and enjoy it.”
Bookings can be made at the Wagga Civic Theatre and the tours will be running until mid-April.
