Шестичасовой штурм: история австралийского и новозеландского "сухого закона"

Australian and New Zealand slang term

The six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a large part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 pm. A culture of heavy drinking developed during the time between finishing work at 5 pm and the mandatory closing time only an hour later.

Six o'clock closing often fuelled an hour long speed drinking session as men raced to get as drunk as possible in the limited time available. An unintended consequence was that patrons would save their glasses during the hour before closing time until the last call came for drinks, where the glasses would be refilled and patrons attempted to drink them all in the time left. The pressure to serve customers led to innovations such as a pipe from the taps so that the bartender did not need to carry the customer's glass to them. Hotels catered for the short heavy drinking period after work by extending their bars and tiling walls for easy cleaning. The phenomenon changed Australian and New Zealand pubs as rooms in the building were converted to bar space; billiard rooms and saloon bars disappeared and separate bar counters were combined. The issue of ending early closing was put to voters in New South Wales in a referendum in 1947, but it was rejected; in the same year, the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled that private clubs were exempt from alcohol restrictions, allowing them to trade alcohol legally after 6 pm. A second referendum held in 1954 narrowly passed, and closing hours were extended to 10 pm in New South Wales in the following year. 10 pm closing was restored in Western Australia in 1959, with Victoria following in 1966. South Australia became the last state to abolish six o'clock closing with legislation introduced by Don Dunstan in 1967 and the first legal after six beer being drunk on 28 September. Bar closing times were extended to 10 pm in New Zealand on 9 October 1967, three weeks after the 1967 licensing hours referendum. An earlier referendum in 1949 had voted three to one to retain six o'clock closing, but there was a partial repeal of the law in 1961 which allowed restaurants to sell liquor until midnight but not hotel bars. Early public house closing times had only limited success; they did not have a significant effect on reducing alcohol consumption and probably contributed to the growth of "sly grog" venues and the illicit alcohol trade. In many cases, patrons would buy alcohol at bottle shops to consume at home after the six o'clock swill. Recent research has indicated that early hotel closing times were indeed effective initially in reducing alcohol consumption levels with consequent improvements in national health indicators. The Great Depression and the Second World War contributed to these trends by lowering disposable income levels, which reduced demand for alcohol. After the Second World War, with the rise in disposable income and expansion in restaurants and purchases of takeaway liquor, the effects of early hotel closing became less clear cut. By the 1950s, Australia's alcohol consumption levels had returned to pre First World War levels.

The Bar (1954), a painting by John Brack which was based on the six o'clock swill, was sold for a record price for an Australian painting of $3.17 million. Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid, an autobiography of a depression era barmaid, describes the six o'clock swill, at a time (1952) when it was presumed that the reader would be familiar with the concept.