The Pier Hotel: Port Hedland’s ‘toughest pub’ to close its doors by the end of the month

A Pilbara pub, once dubbed “the world’s toughest pub” and rumoured to hold a record for the most stabbings in one night, will cease trading this month. The Pier Hotel in Port Hedland announced in a post to social media on Thursday night that it would close once stock runs out. “Well, the time has come for me to make the hardest post I’ve ever had to make . . . soon we will be closing our doors for the final time,” the post said. “As many of you know, we are family-owned and operated. We’ve put our heart and soul into running The Pier Hotel for almost 20 years now, and in doing so we have had to put our private lives on the back-burner. “Lynne (owner) has decided it is time for her to retire and spend more time in New Zealand with her elderly mother, as her health declines. “She has also recently become a great-grandmother and looks forward to spending time with baby outside of the pub.” The watering hole has been a staple in Port Hedland since its establishment in the 1890s and was once dubbed ‘the world’s toughest’ by English journalist John Dyson from the London’s Sunday Telegraph in the mid 1970s. The article claimed that in the mid-70s the Pier was turning over £1 million a year, selling about 6000 glasses of beer a day, totalling 140 gallons (637 litres). “It’s a measure of the style of drinking that every day about 90 glasses are broken (33,000 a year) and half the entire stock has to be replaced every month,” Dyson quipped. In 2011, the Pier featured in a shame file of the State’s top 10 of WA’s most violent pubs and clubs released by police, alongside Kalgoorlie’s Palace Hotel and Burswood’s Eve nightclub. While some people claim it holds an infamous record for the most stabbings in one night — 86 of them — it is unknown where that claim originates. Long-term owner Lynne Taylor has previously put the pub up for sale several times over in the last decade. In December 2021, the pub took to social media to announce it would be closing its doors “for the foreseeable future”, citing that border restrictions and vaccine mandates had forced the establishment to close down due to a lack of staff. Five months later it re-opened with a meet-and-greet event featuring a line-up of anti-vaccine Federal election candidates, including former Great Australia Party candidate Adrian McRae and former One Nation candidate Brenton Johannsen. The two-storey hotel is listed for sale with Knight Frank Australia. It occupies more than 5700sqm of landholdings comprising a main bar with TAB facility, beer garden, restaurant, 20 motel rooms and a four-bedroom residence.