Miners brought their washings to this counter to be weighed, melted and given a number. The balance is still under its glass dome and the safe still stands in the corner with the door open. Around them: eight tables, a short tablelands menu and an evening measured out in assays. Nothing staked, nothing cashed, nothing online.
An assay office that never quite stopped being one
Number seventy-four went up in the 1870s to do one job for the diggings: weigh what came in, melt it, assay it, and hand back a docket with a number on it. The counter is sandstone, the ceiling is pressed metal, and the strongroom is a metre of brick with a door that no longer locks.
Almost all of it stayed. The balance sits under its glass dome on the old counter, the docket books are in a case on the wall, and the safe is a corner nook with two armchairs in it that people fight over.
The house takes about seventy across the two rooms. Entry costs nothing, but this is a licensed venue for people aged 18 and over, and the door staff will ask for identification without apology.
Eight tables
Four in the front room, four in the old strongroom passage.
Tablelands cooking
Beef, root vegetables, pastry, and cheese from up the road.
Assay hours
The evening is called in stages, and each one is announced.
The tables
Eight tables, and not a grain of anything riding on them
The front room holds four tables under the original counter lamps. The other four run down the passage past the strongroom, which is quieter and where most of the long games end up.
Chips here are brass docket tokens, struck with a number the way the assay dockets were. They count points across one evening. They are never sold, never redeemed, and they are collected and counted at close like everything else in this building once was.
The house dealer runs the first assay of every evening and the beginners' table on Thursday. Beyond that the tables run their own hands and nobody stands over them.
Five open tables
No booking, no fee — take a seat where there is one.
Three held tables
Reserved by phone for groups of up to six.
Beginners' table
Thursday, first assay, free, and no experience assumed.
Conduct
What the house asks of everybody
This is an over-18s venue throughout, dining room included, and identification may be asked for at any point.
Brass tokens are struck for scoring and nothing else: never sold, never cashed, no monetary value at any hour.
No stake goes onto a table, no pot comes off one, and no money passes between players in this building.
There are no gaming machines at 74 George Street and none will be installed.
The strongroom passage is narrow; leave bags at the counter rather than beside a chair.
Drink is served responsibly and the house will stop serving anyone who has plainly had enough.
Images
Counter, dome, strongroom, street
Get in touch
George Street, the sandstone frontage
The rooms
74 George Street, Bathurst NSW 2795
Telephone and email
+61 2 6331 5528 · rooms@playtemporas.com
Assay hours
Wednesday to Sunday, 4:30pm – midnight
This week
Which evenings run, and what is called
Evening
Assays
What is called
Wednesday
4:30pm – 12am
Quiet house, three assays, long tables
Thursday
4:30pm – 12am
Beginners' table at the first assay, free
Friday
4:30pm – 12am
Full house, four assays, kitchen booked out early
Saturday
3pm – 12am
Early doors, docket ladder at the third assay
Sunday
3pm – 10pm
Roast, two assays, everyone out by ten
Monday
Closed
Deliveries and the deep clean
Tuesday
Closed
The crew have a life
Asked at the counter
The questions that come up most
Can I play this from home?
No. There is no site to log into, no application, no account and no online room of any kind. The tables are in a sandstone building on George Street and that is the only place any of this exists.
What is a token worth?
A number on a score card until the last assay, and nothing after it. Tokens cannot be bought, cannot be redeemed, and there is no pot, no prize fund and no wagering behind them.
Do you have pokies?
Not one gaming machine, anywhere in the building. It is a quiet house and that is deliberate.
What does an assay mean here?
It is simply how the evening is divided. The house calls the first assay at opening and each one after it, so people know when tables reshuffle and when the kitchen changes over.
Do I need to book?
For dinner, yes, particularly Friday and Saturday. For a table, no — five of the eight are open seating.
Can I bring my sixteen-year-old for the pie?
Unfortunately not. The licence covers the whole house and there is no exception for the dining room.
Eat and drink
Cooking from the tablelands, and pastry taken seriously
The country around here raises beef and grows things that keep: potatoes, swedes, parsnips, onions. The kitchen works with that rather than around it, which means braises, roasts and a great deal of pastry between May and September.
There is always a pie. It changes every fortnight, it is made here from the shortcrust up, and taking it off the board has been tried once and will not be tried again.
The wine list is regional first — cool-climate reds from the ranges either side of town, a few whites, and one fortified that suits a cold night in this building better than anything else on the shelf.
Always a pie
Changed each fortnight, made here, gone by nine on a Friday.
Beef and roots
From properties inside an hour's drive, listed by farm.
Regional glass list
Twelve wines from the ranges, plus one fortified for winter.
Every night in here gets weighed the same way the gold did — carefully, in front of everyone, and the number on the card is worth precisely nothing once you walk out the door.
The telephone is the surest route and is answered from one in the afternoon by somebody in the building. Say whether it is dinner, cards, or the pair of them.
Nothing here can be played online, nothing is wagered and there are no gaming machines — it happens at 74 George Street or it does not happen.
Two entries are written to your browser, the way a docket used to be written at this counter: your age confirmation, and the fact that you have read this. Neither reaches us.See the list
