Second tilt at 2am closing time

By Chris Thomson | posted on May 25, 2018

EIGHTEEN months after it was refused approval to trade to 2am on weekends but allowed to open until 1am, Albany’s Six Degrees bar is having another crack at the later closing time.

In a move that must be advertised at Six Degrees from tomorrow, the Stirling Terrace venue has asked the State liquor licensing director to allow it to trade to 2am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The bar’s new licence application, seen by The Weekender, says there is only one venue in Albany allowed to open long into weekend mornings, Studio 146 nightclub.

“… Not all consumers in Albany wish to patronise the nightclub, and a city the size of Albany should be providing alternatives for consumers,” Six Degrees argues.

The bar also wants licensing conditions varied so that on those weekend nights it does decide to trade to 1am or 2am it is no longer required to engage two bouncers between the hours of 8pm and 10pm.

“… Six Degrees is not a hotel in the traditional sense of the word,” the venue argues.

“There is no TAB service, no traditional ‘front’ or ‘public’ bar for workers, and no bottle shop attached to the premises.

“This application merely seeks to vary the time that the crowd controllers are at the premises, with one beginning at 8pm and the second beginning at 10pm when the majority of diners have finished their meal, and the focus of the premises shifts to entertainment and socialising.”

Also in the bar’s sights is a condition requiring its doors and windows to be shut from 8pm on weekend nights.

Six Degrees submits this condition is “restrictive and onerous, and impedes its ability to provide a vibrant hotel premises during what is essentially a dining period between the hours of 8pm and 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights”.

The venue also wants 2am Friday and Saturday trading extended to its laneway beer garden.

Six Degrees notes that on February 9 the liquor enforcement supervisor for the Great Southern, Mike Russell of Albany Police, visited the bar with a Department of Local Government inspector.

“I can tell you that Inspector John Hassell and I were at Six Degrees last night … at about 22:30hrs … and we were both in agreeance that noise levels were well and truly within acceptable standards,” the venue quotes Sergeant Russell as saying.

“All the feedback I have ever got from my friends and the public has always been positive about Six Degrees.

“I have never regretted supporting the [early morning trading] as I think that contributed something positive to Albany.

“You should be very proud of what you have created.”

The venue lodged its original application for 2am weekend trading on Friday, December 23, 2016.

In November last year it was issued a permit to trade to 1am only.

To no avail, the bar asked that a requirement to advertise its new application be waived.

Anyone wishing to object must do so on or before June 7.

Licensee Anton Davey declined to comment at this stage.