Coogee Media

Grand Hotel Opens
When the Oceanic "officially" opened on 1st December 1927, it was described as being "imposing". The The Daily Telegraph said:

Open for business to-day is one of the most superbly appointed seaside hotels in the metropolitan area, the Oceanic Hotel at Coogee. The new hotel, designed by the well known architects, Robertson and Marks, and constructed by Hutchenson Bros., was erected at a cost of about £100,000. It commands a splendid position facing the park and waterfront, and looks down on the new Ocean Pier.

Oceanic Hotel, c1927. Note, on the northern side of the hotel
was a mini-golf course called Bob-O-Links Golf

The Oceanic was five storeys tall, cement rendered and painted cream colour. It had 70 bedrooms, but apart from a few suites, as was the fashion in those days, most did not have their own bathrooms - there were ten bathrooms on each of the three accommodation floors. The hotel had a lobby, dining room, bar, smoking room, and a "ladies room". Separated from the main part of the hotel and facing Arden Street was a large public bar.

An open courtyard known as the Wintergarden on the open deck overlooking Coogee Beach was a big selling point. It was furnished with shaded tables, pot plants interspersed among them "providing a cool oasis on a hot summer's day". Its decoration was said to be Italian themed.

Theodore Trautwein - Colourful Character
Theodore "Theo" Charles Trautwein (1869 - 1955) publican and hotel broker, was the hotel's owner for most of its life. He was one of Sydney's most colourful and infamous characters. He was also the managing director of Carrington Hotel at Katoomba, purchased and sold other hotels including the nearby Coogee Bay Hotel; became a shareholder in Victoria Park Racing Club; and a racehorse owner and punter. He was involved in lengthy legal proceedings over liability for tax on income from betting; bankrupted and convicted in 1940 of making false representations; and in 1942 of contempt of court. He was discharged as a bankrupt in 1950. Ironically, he was buried nearby at Randwick General Cemetery at the top of Arden Street.

Tragic Death of Tom McMaster, 1929
Large hotels can always have their share of unexpected deaths; they are places where people seek solitude from concerns, respite from illness, or a sanctuary before returning to the cares of everyday life. So it is not surprising that the Oceanic has also had its fair share of unforeseen deaths. One of the most tragic was that of World War One veteran, Thomas Hugh McMaster.

Thomas McMaster (1893 - 1929) was a wealthy grazier from the western New South Wales district of Coolah. According to his enlistment papers he was 6 foot 2 inches tall, enlisted in 1916 in the artillery. He served on the Western Front and was twice wounded in action. He enlisted as a gunner, but by November 1918 had been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant.

McMaster and his wife checked into the Oceanic in late August 1929,. On 5th September 1929, McMaster had afternoon tea with his wife. He left the table and said he would be back in a few minutes. When didn't return, his wife went to their room and heard groans coming from inside. The door was locked. When it was forced open, McMaster was found lying on the floor with a deep wound in his throat. Police Sergeant Frost reported that he found a safety razor blade smeared with blood, and also a table knife, in the room. McMaster's throat was cut from ear to ear, and the head almost severed from the body. McMaster died later in hospital. The coroner ruled that the fatal injuries were self-inflicted, while Mr. McMaster was suffering from temporary mental derangement. He was only 35 years old.

His step-father, Colin Herbert Venn, said that he ran his Weetalibah sheep station at Coolah, which was worth £50,000 (a great deal of money in those days). He had been in ill-health for some time, and during the last five or six weeks had suffered from insomnia. He arrived in Sydney about a fortnight ago, and was to have returned to Coolah with his wife on September 6. He had never been the same since the war, and he thought that he must have been mentally unbalanced at the time.

Oceanic Hotel, early 1960s
It used to dominate Coogee's streetscape

Police Raid Football Club Dinner
When guests gathered at the hotel for a dinner Saturday 16th August 1930 to celebrate the premiership win of the Randwick Rugby Union Football Club, whose guests included the Mayor of Randwick, Alderman Jennings, the entertainment that ensued was very different than they expected. Police raided the dinner and began taking the names of those present. Ald. Dunningham, who was in the chair as the President of the Club, then stopped the celebration, and asked those present to leave quietly, which they did.

Even more remarkable was what had taken place at the Coogee Bay Hotel on the previous Saturday night, when the premises were raided during a function in aid of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The problem was that, in those days, the liquour licensing laws only allowed the dinner to continue to 10pm. The St Vincent de Paul Society diners tarried until 11pm, which raised the wrath of the lcoal constabulary.

Aware of the likelihood of diners not wanting to rush away from their meals, the football club at this particular Oceanic dinner, applied to extend the diner to 11pm, which the licensee of the hotel was adamant had been granted by a magistrate. The police were shown a copy of the permit and accepted the application without comment. The Club assumed all was in hand. Local political leaders were outraged by the heavy handed actions of the police and called upon the State Government for an apology!

Favoured Venue for Sporting Teams
Because of its size, closeness to sporting facilities and location opposite Coogee Beach, the Oceanic was long a favoured venue for visiting sporting teams and their staff. Cricketers, footballers and athletes from Australia and overseas regularly made the Oceanic their Sydney "headquarters", often using Coogee Oval and the beach, to train. Sometimes, their managers called their stay at what was then a top-notch hotel, "a camp" - sometimes anything but a camp.

Wild Night at Coogee: Athletes Run Wild
Athletes who competed in the British Commonwealth versus U.S.A. carnival at Moore Park 6th December 1956 were supposed to retire to Coogee to recuperate, but "ran wild" at Coogee Beach in the early hours of the morning 7th December, 1956.

The Americans staying at the Oceanic Hotel "raided" Commonwealth athletes booked in at the Coogee Bay Hotel. Eyewitnesses said the athletes, some nude or in underpants only, "ran wild" on the beach for several hours. A pipe and wire mesh fence in front of the Coogee Bay Hotel was wrecked. Pipes were torn out of concrete settings and brick supports smashed.

The police arrived about 3.30 a.m. and quietened down the celebrations for a while - but made no arrests. "John Landy was blue in the face trying to calm them down," a porter at the Coogee Bay Hotel said. "He did a wonderful job." The verandah and beer garden in the morning were littered with broken beer bottles. Bundles of newspapers and magazines were torn open at a newsagency round the corner from the hotel. An assistant at the news agency said at the time: "They are in such a mess, none of them can be sold."

John Cullen, a member of Coogee Surf Life-saving Club, said that at 4am, 30 to 40 athletes were on the promenade and in the park "singing and yelling." There were two girls with them," he added. But the manager of Coogee Bay Hotel, Mr. J. Tindall, said "As far as I am concerned I could not wish for nicer guests."

Front Public Bar
The front bar and adjacent "beer garden" were favoured drinking spot for locals. Its plain concrete steps were adjacent to the raised footpath above Arden Street. In the days when licensing laws were a little more relaxed, you could sit outdoors in the sun on the steps. Or you could wander over to the white municipal fence with a beer in hand, even though you were now on a public path, and wile away the time watching the surf on Coogee Beach. It was also a place where fishermen, who fished from boats launched from the northern end of Coogee, would sell their catch to hotel patrons and passerbys. You could not get fresher fish than that!

Music Venue
The Back of the Moon bar was a popular nightclub venue for a younger crowd and attracted many rock and pop bands: Jeff St John, Cold Chisel, The La De Dahs, Oasis, Johnny O'Keefe, Paul Hogan and Ted Mulry Gang were among some of the top attractions to appear there.

Advertising Card for Oceanic Hotel, 1969

Not just rock bands, the hotel was also a venue for more traditional entertainment. Irish-born comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) did a stint at the Oceanic presenting a comedy show from April 1963. The show received mixed reviews, and as one commentator noted, it was "a not wildly successful show, so when a representative of the television station TCN9 (now Channel Nine), saw his performance the the Oceanic and offered his a slot fronting a new late-nite talk show called Tonight with Dave Allen, Allen jumped at the opportunity and decamped from the Coogee gig. It was the starting point for a stellar career for Allen.

Special Occasions During the 1950s through to the 1970s, the Oceanic was a popular venue for debutante balls, graduation dinners, and other grand social occasions in the Nordic Room. The Nordic Room, was a favourite venue for local wedding receptions. One woman we spoke to said she had such fond memories of the good time she had at her wedding reception in the early 1960s, that she chose it for the site of the wedding reception for her second marriage! For many people, especially Coogee locals, the Oceanic's dining room was the place to go to celebrate that special occasion. The hotel often marked holidays like Christmas Day, New Year's eve, and Mother's Day with a special menu to encourage people to celebrate at the Hotel. By the 1980s, the main dining experience was the Hotel's "Chinese Restaurant" which also welcomed take-away customers. One of the restaurant's desert menu items was fried ice cream, something people still remember today.

Oceanic Hotel Coogee, Carr Street Entrance, 1985
By now, as the sign indicates, the Oceanic
had gained a gym and fitness centre.

Replaced by New Hotel
By the 1980s, owners, commercial interests, town boosters and municipal authorities felt that the Oceanic had seen its best days and needed to be replaced by something bigger and glitzier; an establishment to make Coogee anew and attract tourism. In 1987, despite much local resident opposition, the hotel was demolished and construction started on a new, taller, "international" standard hotel. In a few short years a nine-storey "L" shaped building replaced it - first branded as a "Holiday Inn", and currently known as "Crowne Plaza". Of course, these days, each room has its own ensuite bathroom - guests no longer have to run down the hall to shared bathrooms, 1920s style, but also no longer able to sit on the front steps of the bar drinking beer in the sun.

Oceanic Hotel, c1988 Demolition & Ad for the last Mothers Day Lunch