Few pubs in Geelong evoke the sentiments, memories or scandal that the old Terminus Hotel on Mercer and Brougham can rummage up.

Built 1853-54 in tandem with the start of the Geelong-Melbourne railway, and by the same bloke, engineer-architect Edward Snell, it’s stood the test of time a good bit better.

The rail line was dodgy, built on the cheap, and saw the chief engineer killed on its launch trip, the station was rebuilt just 20 years later and parliamentary inquiries had Snell at the heart of a lengthy scandal.

The stories that have accompanied the pub down the years are legion and legend.

Everything from bikers, strippers, topless barmaids, shootings and stabbings to tunnels and manacles for convicts, smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Loads of musos played there. I once saw Tommy and Phil Emmanuel strip the paint of the walls with their trademark high-decibel machine-guns.

Likewise, saw printer mates from this journal facing off with cranky motorcycle enthusiasts over the attentions of scantily-clad females. To be honest, there was actually no scant.

When interviewing a licensee over a furore his plans for pole-dancing and the rest of it created, it turned out he was good Catholic stock from the same Melbourne primary and secondary schools I’d attended. Our interview was truncated by the arrival of several prospective staff for interviews/auditions.

Records tell us the Verminus, as it was sometimes known, was built 1853-54 to a design by Snell and his colleague ‘Fritz’ Kawerau. Its first two owners, Alfred Napoleon Gilbert and Edwin Hooper, were shareholders of the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company.

The hotel is a wedge-shaped, three-storey stuccoed brick structure with a rounded corner, unusual for a pub of the era. It had 46 bedrooms and a ballroom, and reflected the arrival of a more ambitious, sophisticated gold rush architecture.

That sheen was long gone by the 1990s when it was reportedly declared ‘The sleaziest pub in Australia’. Former drinkers suggest ‘what happened at the Terminator, stays at the Terminator’.

Here’s one old news story that undoubtedly drew some interest when it unfolded back in 1939:

GEELONG, Friday. While conversing with a man at the rear of the Terminus Hotel on Thursday night, Edward Stratton Clarke, husband of the nominee, licensee of the hotel, was shot in the arm and leg. His companion was not struck.

Clarke was taken to the Geelong Hospital, and this morning an operation was performed for the removal of the bullets. His condition is not regarded as serious.

In the Court of Petty Sessions to-day, Alan Mcintosh, Mercer street, Geelong, was charged with having unlawfully and maliciously wounded Clarke with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Detective Raper said that Mcintosh was arrested late last night. He said that it was alleged that of the rear of the Terminus Hotel several shots were fired.

He saw Clarke bleeding from wounds in the hands, and Clarke also had a bullet wound in the leg. Clarke later identified Mcintosh as one who had firearms when the shooting; took place.

Mcintosh was remanded to appear at the court on Friday next. Bail was fixed in a surety of £50, and a bond of £50.

Perhaps the most abiding tale about the pub is the Terminus tunnel purportedly extending to the port – possibly via the Golden Age/The Deck pub – for various nefarious purposes; anything from gun-running, sly grog smuggling, convict transfers, slave labour and illegal immigrants.

Friends swear blue in the face the bolts and rings survive behind the bricked-up entrance in the pub’s basement. They know people who have seen them. If only someone could drill a hole through …

Footnote: A spectacular panoramic image of Geelong was painted in 1891 by artist John Stuart Jackson from the heights of the Terminus Hotel, which includes the hotel as well. The original, in fragile and damaged condition, lies with the Geelong Heritage Centre. A photograph of the complete painting, by George Leake Massingham, however, can be found within the State Library of Victoria’s copyright-free image collection. Its title: Geelong from Sheehan’s Terminus Hotel.

This article appeared in the Geelong Advertiser 8 September 2025.