Headlands pub silenced, but its spirit still roams free

The regulars at the Headlands Hotel weren’t shy about making themselves at home.

Some would unashamedly wait to be let in when the doors opened at 10am and the place seemed to encourage a certain laid-back familiarity. Still, people kept their clothes on then.

The pub’s closure in June 2011 under a cloud of debt ushered in a new spirit of liberation.

Coledale resident Georgina Evershed, 29, has captured the ‘‘anything goes’’ appeal of the derelict watering hole in a photo that was yesterday highly commended in the Photos1440 Challenge, a national photography competition run by the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the photo - titled Nudie run, Headlands Hotel, Austinmer - a naked woman runs the length of the building with a brown-bagged longneck in her hand.

Ms Evershed said the hotel and its surrounds remained a prized, ‘‘no-rules’’ community meeting point.

‘‘It’s kind of liberated at the moment,’’ she said.

‘‘I feel that it’s being occupied in kind of unconventional ways.

‘‘It’s still somewhere where people go, even though the pub is closed. People will sit under the umbrellas or down at the rock pools and have a beer.’’

The owner of the pub, Thirroul Property Holdings, went into receivership in June last year, and it remains on the market.

Ms Evershed has since used a 36-year-old Nikon FT2 camera containing film to chronicle the Austinmer headland and some of its characters.

They include the maintenance worker ‘‘Kimbo’’, who suffered a stroke and was hospitalised during last month’s photo session.

The streaker is an Illawarra resident who had frequented the hotel.

Ms Evershed would not say whether the woman’s ‘‘nudie run’’ was purely for the camera.

‘‘Maybe she lost a game of poker or something,’’ she said.

See smh.com.au for all winning images from the competition.

Source: The Illawarra Mercury, 23 July 2012