If you’re a music fan who’s spent any time in the inner north of Melbourne over the last 40 years, chances are you have at least one (potentially rather hazy) memory of the Tote Hotel.
Maybe you saw your favourite international band at a secret show, or your favourite local band before anyone knew who they were. Maybe you took a date to the Cobra Bar, or cemented life-long friendships in the beer garden. Maybe you’ve been forever haunted by the taste of $1 pots on a Tuesday evening, or the feeling of your shoes fusing to the sticky carpet in the back bar.
As the Tote Hotel wraps up its year of celebrating 40 years as a live music venue this year (41 if we’re counting, but Covid had other plans), let’s look back on the history of this iconic Melbourne venue.
The pub on the south-west corner of Wellington and Johnston Streets, Collingwood, may be a familiar place of revelry to many of us now, but way back in 1860 the corner housed the Beech, Solomon and Co., grocery store.
By 1864 the site had a new lease holder in Daniel Healy. Healy was born in Tipperary, Ireland in January 18322, and came to Melbourne on the ‘Bride’ in 18523, later marrying another Irish migrant Bridget Ryan in Richmond in 18584. Daniel Healy took over the Johnston Street lease in 18645 and opened Healy’s Hay and Corn Store.
Healy soon bought the block for 400 pounds. This turned out to be a little mischievous on Healy’s part, as he had previously been declared insolvent. To hide this, Healy fraudulently transferred the deed for his new property to his wife, Bridget (Argus, 20 Oct 1870, p5).
By 1870 Healy had apparently had enough of the grain business, and instead built Healy’s Hotel on the prime corner block6. This was the beginning of the iconic corner pub as we know it today.
The first iteration of the pub wasn’t entirely profitable, and Daniel Healy was declared insolvent again in 1872. In 1873 he decided to rebrand, changing the name of the pub to the Ivanhoe Hotel7.
His relaxed view of business rules continued to cause trouble for him, and Healy was fined on several occasions for Sunday Trading.
In 1883 Bridget Healy took over the license to the Ivanhoe8, and ran it along with the couple’s oldest son, Michael ‘Mick’ Healy. Mick was a well-known local bookmaker, who with his mother’s help had talked his way into being granted a bookmaker’s licence at the age of 20, one year before it was technically legal for him to do so. His apparent knack for bookmaking led to the nickname ‘the Human Tote’.
Mick Healy was also friends with the infamous James Wren, who had a property further down Johnston Street. This was the site of ‘The Collingwood Tote’: an illegal, underground betting establishment, well-known to both locals, authorities, and journalists (Argus, 12 Feb 1904, p 8). Although rumours persisted for years that the Ivanhoe Hotel and Wren’s totaliser were somehow connected by a network of tunnels, the distance between the two properties makes this extremely unlikely.
Daniel and Bridget Healy resided upstairs at the Ivanhoe Hotel, and both ultimately died on the premises; Daniel in 1894 and Bridget in 19069. A year before Bridget passed, she transferred the licence of the hotel to her eldest child, Mary (The Age, 7 Nov 1905, p 8). In her will she left the property itself to another daughter, Margaret. Bridget’s probate record shows that despite early financial complications, by the early 1900s the Healys had managed to acquire a sizable estate including Healy’s Point Hotel in Kensington, shares in the Abbotsford brewery, and several residential properties in Heidelberg, Caulfield and Collingwood10.
After a 70-year legacy, the Healy family sold the Ivanhoe to publican Stanley Bell in 1940.
In 1981 Michael Lynch and Paul Doherty took over the Ivanhoe Hotel and opened The Tote as a music venue with a focus on new, local bands. While the turn of the Millennium saw The Tote as largely synonymous with rock and garage bands, The Tote was never intended to comply with a specific genre or ‘scene’ – the remit was always to give emerging talent a place to play and an inner-city audience a space to find new sounds. Even electronic music was always on the agenda right from the start:
At The Tote you have new wave, ska and reggae bands, folkies and just about every other type of band sharing the bill….One area they have not covered is electronic music but there are plans afoot to expand into that.11
Over its 40+ years as a live music venue the Tote has hosted international acts such as Dead Moon, The White Stripes, Mudhoney, and the Dirtbombs, and countless Australian acts such as The Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly, Violet Soho, You Am I, The Scientists, Mach Pelican, Dynamo, Warped, and Courtney Barnett. Arguably more exciting than the big names are the hordes of new bands opening a show on any given night – an eager punter might just see the Next Big Thing playing their first ever show.
Back in 1886, changes to the Licensing Act resulted in Bridget Healy being charged with the somewhat confusing offence of “having a door leading to the bar open or unlocked” (Mercury and Weekly Courier, 12 March 1886, p 3). In 2010 another change to licensing requirements saw The Tote almost close its doors for good. Coming off the backdrop of several high-profile alcohol-related violent attacks at other locations, The Tote – along with many other live music venues in Melbourne – was declared a ‘high-risk’ venue. Additional security and insurance requirements were added to their license conditions which the then licensee Bruce Milne believed were financially prohibitive and made the continuation of the business impossible 12. Last drinks were called on 18 Jan 2010, with the Drones playing what many thought would be the last set 13.
These new regulations made no distinction between smaller live music venues and larger nightclubs in terms of risk, and the Melbourne music community was outraged at the lack of understanding of the live music scene, and the ways in which the new regulations unfairly impacted smaller venues. On 23 Feb 2010, the SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) rally saw 20,000 people take to Melbourne’s streets in protest14.
Several positive policy changes were announced by the Victorian government as a direct result of the rally. Ultimately, The Tote was saved – reopening as a band venue with new owners Sam Crupi, Jon Perring, and Andy Portokallis after a six-month closure 15.
The impacts of licensing regulations were felt by many venues across the city, but it was the closure of the beloved Tote – a haven for so many – that galvanized the community to take action.
In 2022, after a one-year delay caused by Covid lockdowns, The Tote was finally able to celebrate 40 years as a live music venue. Here’s to many more drinks to come.
More to explore
Still thirsty for more music stories? You might be interested in some of our past blogs:
- The punk and alternative music scenes of St Kilda (and Melbourne) in the 1970s and 1980s
- Kooyong’s greatest hits
- Pop music ephemera is pop music
- Music for The Ages: and the library shelves
References
- This newly acquired collection of photographs by Zo Damage has not been processed and catalogued and is not yet available for viewing
- Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915, Ancestry Library Edition database, viewed 6 Dec 2022, https://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com/
- Unassisted passenger lists (1852-1923), VPRS 947, Public Record Office Victoria, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/passenger-records-and-immigration/unassisted-passenger-lists>
- Australian Marriage Index, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/>
- Victoria, Australia, Rate Books, 1855-1963, Ancestry Library Edition, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com/>
- Cole, R. K., Ivanhoe hotel, Collingwood, ‘Index of Victorian hotels, 1841-1949’, vol 4 p 52, MS 7592, State Library Victoria
- as above
- as above
- Australian Death Index, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/>
- Probate and Administration Files, VPRS 28/P0000, 97/479, Public Record Office Victoria, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://prov.vic.gov.au/>
- Whitehead, R, and Di Mase, J, 1982, ‘Digressions’, The Age, 30 April, Weekender p 2
- Hawking, Tom, 2010, ‘Licence to Ill’, Inpress, 27 Jan 2010, issue 1107, p 20
- Bastow, C, 2010, ‘Last drinks at the Tote’, Inpress, 20 Jan, issue 1106, p 75
- Australian Music Vault, 2022, Jenkins, J., SLAM Rally 10th Anniversary, viewed 6 Dec 2022, <https://www.australianmusicvault.com.au/music%20stories/read/slam/>
- Sticky Carpet, 2011, ‘What a year it’s been for the Tote’, The Age, 14 Jan, EG p 7
Hi, great article. But just a correction on the transformation of the Tote from the Ivanhoe to Le Tote. Paul’s parents (Jack and Joan) bought the Ivanhoe in 1980, and Jack Doherty got bands in to supplement pub income when the owners of the restaurant in the pub (La Trattoria) ceased running the restaurant. Jack was the first ‘booker’, then Paul took over, then Michael (school friend from Ballarat) was the first ‘real’ booker. See chapter 4 of Execution Days: The Live and Times of Spencer P Jones.
Thanks for the clarification of that timeline Patrick, I did condense a lot of history into a couple of sentences for the sake of this blog, but it’s a good distinction to note. Glad you enjoyed the blog!
Great blog! I’ve lived around the corner for many years and didn’t know half of this!
This is a great blog.It talks about 40+ years of the Tote.
Name Change Ad
Hi Caitlyn,
The Beat magazine entry for 21 December 1988 features an album launch headlined by Five Loose (sic) Timmy. This was a misspelling and the band name was actually Five Lose Timmy. I was the lead vocalist. We had a couple of guest horn players that night who had played on two tracks on the recording, Raphael Bender on trumpet and Peter Ryan (BABBA) on saxophone. The music is available on Bandcamp if you search Five Lose Timmy, along with the cover art.
Hi Mark – that’s a shame your band name was misspelt in that listing! I hope the gig was a memorable one – I’ll have to give them a listen.
I worked as a young barman at the Ivanhoe in 1972. I think the owner was a Pat Ryan. Interesting clientel