Royal Hotel Hill End

Editor’s Note: This begins another 2-week stint of posts written by John. For this one, the Tour rolled on from the gem of a Royal in Sofala into it’s final stop for the night, the picturesque, quaint gold-mining town of Hill End. Even though our experience at the Royal Hotel Hill End this time around wasn’t amazing, it’s still a cool little town that I have a fair bit of affinity for.

So without further ado, John’s account of the Royal Hotel Hill End.

Hill End itself was freezing cold. The Royal, like most, seemed like great spot to warm up (with a cold beer). As this was our last stop for the night, we felt like we had earned it. We always feel like we earned it.

Anyway, in we pop to another smallish, old quaint pub. Certainly a local since every knew everyone else, and it was the only pub within several post codes. It would have been a nice spot for a feed and a warm up beer, except for the barman.

He was nice enough, probably, but the card machine didn’t work. No big deal, I’ll pay cash. But he wouldn’t listen and made a big fuss about it, like I was making a fuss about it. So I’m left standing as he’s making up excuses and excitedly swearing at the EFTPOS machine. I held my $50 note eyeing off the two beers he’d poured, waiting for the show to be over. I’m not sure why the barman was panicking. He wasn’t going to lose us as customers. As the type of guys who drive 150kms to drink beer at 11am, we are a pretty easy sell. 

Finally drinks in hand and card machine still on the fritz, we enjoyed the atmosphere as the pub got fuller and rowdier. Then, finally, a pub fight! Ok, not a physical fight, more verbal. And again it was the barman vs card machine due to one of the locals wanting to put his 4 rum shout on the card. “It ok. I’ve got cash” said the local in a deja vu inducing scene. The barman wasn’t having any of it. 

The Hill End Royal itself was nice yet unremarkable, not a place to rush back to but a decent enough place to have a beer if you’re in the part of the country. A tiny town that was once a very rich through gold mining and all that comes with it. I’m sure at one stage you could trade flecks of gold for beer there. They might want to reintroduce that as an idea.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Hill End, NSW
• Population: 102
• Date Visited: Saturday, May 6, 2023
• Visited By: Cory, John
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: None
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Tooheys New
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $6.50
• Unique Award: Royal Most In Need of a Connectivity Upgrade
• Tour Progress: 27.2% (37/136)