Following the recent blaze which destroyed the RSL Club in Darwin's CBD there is talk that it may resume trading in the closed down historic Victoria Hotel in the Smith Street Mall. The Vic was the hostelry where pioneer aviators stayed , frequented by Northern Territory News staff , characters galore, very busy during interval on cowboys movie night at The Star open air theatre just across the road . This blogger's first night in Darwin, in 1958 , was spent in the Vic , mine host Richard Fong . Journalist Keith Willey joked that "poor Richard " made trips to Hong Kong where , with the help of a "casting couch", he interviewed Chinese girls wanting to be his wife . As it turned out, he married an Australian girl . It is hard to believe that this busy hotel , much changed , ran into financial trouble and closed down in recent years.
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The Vic public bar in frothier times . A Vern O'Brien photograph.
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