Cairns gay beats

Rusty&#;s Pub in Cairns was once the sole gathering place for the far northern LGBTIQA+ communities. And what a place it was!

On Saturday nights during the late 80s and early 90s, the beer garden of the vintage pub hosted the weekly Gay Night. By beer garden, I actually denote a patch of dirt out the back. And by dirt, I denote dirt, or in the wet season, mud.

A vast mango tree dominated the space. Squeals from fruit bats fighting over mangoes interspersed the disco beat.

Visiting academic Dennis Altman wrote of the place, &#;It looks like the part of a pub where they hose down the derros after closing time.&#;

It did. But Rusty&#;s was great fun regardless.

The venue began originally in a room upstairs. In the early eighties, Pat O&#;Hara, a local woman with a gay son and many gay friends, asked the pub owner about a space for male lover people to party in safety. The owner also had a gay son and agreed. He told her the gays could do what they liked with the space.

They didn&#;t need to be told twice. Dormie McIvor, a former Sydney nightclub owner took charge of layout. Jackie Frost, an