Star Bar 
Since 1828
Nearly two
hundred years
The building was here before the state had its name. Everything since has just been people, in it, having a night.
The building
Built in 1828,
from convict brick
The Star Bar building at 113 Charles Street, Launceston, was constructed in 1828 from convict brick. Its heritage listed facade survives to this day and is still the entrance to the venue. That makes it close to two hundred years old and one of the oldest continuously used buildings in the Launceston CBD.
To put 1828 in place: Launceston was twenty-two years old. Tasmania was still called Van Diemen's Land and would not be renamed for another twenty-eight years. There was no Australia to speak of, no photography, and nothing in this town taller than two storeys.
The brick was made and laid by convict labour, which is the plain and uncomfortable fact of almost every old building in this state. It is worth saying out loud rather than tidying away. People who had no choice built the walls that this city has been drinking, arguing and celebrating inside ever since.
The facade has watched Charles Street change from mud to macadam to bitumen, seen horses give way to trams and trams to cars, and stayed exactly where it is through all of it.
The long version
What happened here
-
1828
The walls go up
The building is raised on Charles Street out of convict brick, in a town of a few thousand people at the top of the Tamar. The facade built this year is the one still standing.
-
1838
The licence comes through
Ten years after the walls go up, the building takes its liquor licence and the room at street level starts serving. It has held one without a break in every year since.
-
1800s
A landmark on Charles Street
Launceston grows around it into northern Tasmania's port, market and meeting place. The building becomes one of the addresses everyone in town can picture without being told which one it is.
-
1991
Restored, reopened, and the fire is lit
After extensive renovations the Star Bar relaunches. An Italian wood-fired pizza oven is brought in for the occasion, and the very first pizza out of it is cooked by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen on opening night. The oven has barely been allowed to go cold since.
-
Now
Bar, kitchen, roof and rooms
Today the building runs as a bar, a restaurant, a rooftop, a function venue and a small hotel, and it has been putting bands in front of a room here for decades. Open seven days from 11am and going until the last song.
Why we say it
Add Your Story
A building this old does not really belong to whoever holds the keys. It belongs to everyone who has had a night in it.
Two hundred years of first dates, last drinks, engagements, wakes, birthdays nobody fully remembers and Sunday afternoons that went longer than planned. All of it happened between these walls, and none of it was written down. That is what the slogan means. We keep the lights on and the fire going. The story is the part you bring.
Our aim is simple enough to say in one line: to make this your favourite place to celebrate, and the first place in Launceston you think of when something is worth marking.
In short
The facts, plainly
- Built
- 1828
- Licensed
- 1838, continuously ever since
- Licensee
- Joshua Molendyk
- Materials
- Convict brick
- Heritage
- Heritage listed facade, still the front entrance
- Address
- 113 Charles Street, Launceston, Tasmania 7250
- Restored
- 1991, reopened with an imported Italian wood-fired pizza oven
- Today
- Bar, restaurant, rooftop bar, function and conference rooms, boutique accommodation
- Known for
- Late night live music, the rooftop, and being older than nearly everything around it
- Slogan
- Add Your Story