Gay bars near cairns

And what a place it was! On Saturday nights during the late 80s and early 90s, the beer garden of the old pub hosted the weekly Gay Night. By beer garden, I actually mean a patch of dirt out the back. And by dirt, I mean dirt, or in the wet season, mud. A huge mango tree dominated the space. Squeals from fruit bats fighting over mangoes interspersed the disco beat.

The venue began originally in a room upstairs. The owner also had a gay son and agreed. He told her the gays could do what they liked with the space. Dormie McIvor, a former Sydney nightclub owner took charge of design. Jackie Frost, another local woman with a lot of gay friends, was dating a carpenter. They tore down walls, built new partitions and installed lighting.

Finally, they painted the room pink. Homosexuality remained illegal and the Bjelke-Petersen government refused to register homosexual organisations. Entry was via a lounge bar, empty except for a single table. Behind the table, an elderly lady and Ted Kelk. The former closeted school teacher had tested positive for AIDS the year before.

Gay Map of Cairns

After a year career, he quit teaching and came roaring out of the closet determined to spend his remaining time fighting for gay rights. Because of concerns about the police in that remote tropical outpost, CHISC required non-members to be signed in by two existing members. Once in the door, we discovered the inside section consisted of a bar, a few sheets of masonite thrown down as a the dance floor and a jukebox wired to speakers.

With no DJ, the music selection was truly democratic. Patrons dropped 20 cents into the jukebox and chose a song. It worked well except when some drunk dropped in five coins and chose the same song, usually Bohemian Rhapsody, five times in a row. Wonderful song but who wants to keep dancing to the same song over and over?

Only very drunk people. So, we drank and we danced. Most of the space and the seating was outside under the giant mango tree. In its upper limbs, squealing flying foxes fought over fruit. Occasionally, a half-eaten mango plummeted into the chatting, carousing and cruising crowd below.