 | |
| Founded | 1984 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Pauline Higgisson |
Area served | Lyneham, Canberra |
| Website | tilleys |
Tilley's Devine Café Gallery is a well-known café in the suburb of Lyneham in Canberra, Australia. It was named after Matilda 'Tilly' Devine, an English Australian gangster and madame from Sydney.
Lyneham is a suburb of Canberra, Australia in the North Canberra district. It is named after Sir William Lyne, premier of the Australian state of New South Wales from 1899 to 1901. The suburb name was gazetted in 1928, but development did not commence until 1958. The streets of Lyneham are named after artists and people associated with the development of early Canberra.
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 410,301, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney, and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a Canberran. Although Canberra is the capital and seat of government, many federal government ministries have secondary seats in state capital cities, as do the Governor-General and the Prime Minister.
Matilda Mary Devine, known as Tilly Devine, was an English Australian organised crime boss. She was involved in a wide range of activities, including sly-grog, razor gangs, and prostitution, and became a famous folk figure in Sydney during the interwar years.
When the café first opened in 1984, it was intended as a women's space, with men allowed entry only when accompanied by women. [1] Popular with lesbian women, it quickly became an icon of Canberra's LGBT scene. Attempts to restrict or limit entry of men brought challenges, [2] [3] most notably by a group of cadets from the Royal Military College, Duntroon who attempted to force their way in, instigating a brawl.[ citation needed ] The policy was maintained for two years. [4]
LGBT, or GLBT, is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.
The Royal Military College, Duntroon, also known simply as Duntroon, is the Australian Army's officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, in 1911 and is located at the foot of Mount Pleasant near Lake Burley Griffin, close to the Department of Defence headquarters at Russell Hill. It is comparable with the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Duntroon is adjacent to the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), which is Australian Defence Force's tri-service military academy that provides military and tertiary academic education for junior officers of the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.
Tilley's originally had seating for 60, but subsequently expanded five times, and now has large indoor and outdoor eating areas. It was once a popular space for night time concerts by local musicians, hosting names such as Mia Dyson, Frente!, [5] and Clare Bowditch. In 2005 concerts were scaled back in order to expand the more financially viable restaurant and café. [6] According to ACT historian Roslyn Russell, it was the first licensed outdoor venue in Australia, and the first Australian bar to ban smoking indoors. [7]
Mia Celeste Dyson is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She has released six studio albums, Cold Water, Parking Lots, Struck Down, The Moment, Idyllwild and If I Said Only So Far I Take It Back. Parking Lots won the Best Blues & Roots Album category at the 2005 ARIA Awards. In 2009 Dyson relocated to Boston and then moved to Los Angeles in 2010.
Frente! are an Australian alternative rock and folk-pop group which originally formed in 1989. The original line-up consisted of Simon Austin on guitar and backing vocals, Angie Hart on lead vocals, Tim O'Connor on bass guitar, and Mark Picton on drums. In August 1991 they issued their debut extended play, Whirled, which included the track, "Labour of Love". In March 1992 they released a second EP, Clunk, with its featured track, "Ordinary Angels", which peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart. It was followed in October by "Accidently Kelly Street" which reached No. 4. Their debut album, Marvin the Album, issued in November, peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart. "Labour of Love" was released as an EP outside of Australasia in 1994 as a CD single with a cover version of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" included. The Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane felt that the group's "quirky, irreverent, acoustic-based sound was at odds with the usual guitar-heavy, grunge trends of the day. The band's presentation had a tweeness about it that could have been off-putting if not for its genuine freshness and honesty".
Clare Bowditch is an Australian musician, actor, radio presenter and business entrepreneur.
