What an outback pub trial told us about the dark side of WA’s nightlife

The Roebuck Bay Hotel was long considered an untouchable fixture of the West Australian tourism town of Broome.

Affectionately known by locals as “the Roey”, the pub for long had a monopoly over the town’s alcohol supply.

Its presence was everywhere, serving drinks at the town’s horse races and its famous Mardi Gras festival.

The venue’s manager, Stewart Burchell, was described by local police as a “great guy”. The Roey’s reputation was enduring, until detectives kicked in its doors two years ago.

A reckoning

Australia’s hospitality industry has been under scrutiny in recent years, with universities and unions investigating reports of sexual harassment, substance abuse and inappropriate professional norms across businesses.

The Roebuck Bay Hotel was a petri dish of the same issues examined in a report from the University of Melbourne, including the impact of insecure work arrangements, the sexualised environment hospitality offers and pervasive power dynamics.

However, the extent of what was going on behind the bar was only first revealed in a Broome court this month at the trial of the pub’s manager, Burchell.

For the University of Melbourne’s Dr Bianca Fileborn, the contents of the court case were unsurprising.

Fileborn helped bring about the reckoning through their work helping compile 2022’s Not So Hospitable report, which outlined the experience of hospitality workers in South Australia.

Nearly three years on, they say too little has changed.

“I think we have started to see some positive change in the hospitality industry over recent years; however there is still a long way to go,” Fileborn said.

Wet T-shirts, skimpies and scotch

The Roebuck Bay Hotel is home to Australia’s oldest wet T-shirt competition, hosted every Thursday night in the pub’s beer garden.

It’s performed in front of hundreds of rowdy punters, with men and women getting on stage in pub-provided white singlets to have water poured over their chests.

Burchell was often the compère.

At his trial, he described the competition as an “institution” that had existed long before he worked at the venue, and one that brought crowds back every week, even during the region’s steaming wet season.

It is a sexualised environment, with skimpy bartenders also called to the pub every other week to pull pints.

A skimpy is a bartender who serves drinks while dressed in lingerie or a costume. As skimpies serve punters, they pass a jug around.

When the pub’s patrons raise a certain amount of money, the young woman takes off a piece of clothing. But the rules remained clear: no touching.

The WA District Court found this was a rule Burchell knew of when he reached out and tapped a 19-year-old skimpy on the bottom one evening.

The Not So Hospitable report even has a section of its research dedicated to pointing out how sexualised environments impact staff.

“Concerningly, a significant minority of participants shared stories of being harassed or groomed by older male employers ... numerous respondents described a gradually escalating pattern of behaviour, usually commencing with seemingly ‘innocent’ comments or interactions, and gradually shifting towards more overtly sexualised or violent behaviour over time,” it said.

“For some participants being required to present themselves in a sexualised manner was uncomfortable and was drawn on by others to excuse and minimise experiences of harassment.”

Adding alcohol to the mix, Fileborn said, could be a recipe for disaster if not carefully monitored.

The report found out of 48 participants who shared stories regarding sexual harassment in hospitality, 77 per cent involved alcohol.

The District Court was told many of the indecent assaults on staff perpetrated by Burchell happened at what was commonly known as “staffys”; gatherings after the bar closed, where Burchell would drink beer and scotch with his co-workers.

It was at one of these staff drinks where he cornered a staff member in her room and ordered her to touch herself, an incident he was eventually convicted over.

Fileborn said it was these kinds of environments where sexual harassment could take place, and could be difficult to monitor.

“This doesn’t mean that we can never have a knock-off drink with co-workers,” they said.

“But we need to be aware of how alcohol can be drawn on to enable sexual harassment, and to excuse perpetrators’ behaviour.”

But even for those who didn’t present themselves sexually and didn’t drink, the culture of the pub was pervasive.

Visas, backpackers and casual shifts

Insecure work arrangements are also a staple of many Australian pubs.

Towns like Broome require an influx of backpackers every dry season – June, July and August – to deal with the increase in tourists.

At the Roey, Burchell relied heavily on the transient nature of the town to keep the bar running.

“A fair majority of Roey bar staff were … either backpackers or ex-backpackers,” his former co-worker told the trial.

Backpackers in Australia frequently use 417 visas, and in the years Burchell ran the bar, the number of backpackers exploded – nearly doubling pre-pandemic levels.

Under the conditions of the visa, backpackers must undertake work in specific Australian industries to extend their stay for another year.

Hospitality is not one of those industries, and the competition for farm and construction work is fierce.

So when Burchell offered to forge one backpacker’s payslips as a way for her to extend her visa for another year, she gratefully accepted.

He wrote she worked in construction and maintenance around the property. In reality, she was a bartender.

“[Burchell] said he had done it for people before, and he was already floating the idea of helping me get long-term sponsorship,” the backpacker told the court during Burchell’s trial.

“It was January, so I knew I only had a few months and I knew if I [accepted] I would be able to stay.”

He later raped her.

A survey by Unions NSW last year found about half of women on temporary visas had faced sexual harassment at work, but 75 per cent of them did not report it over fears of retaliation or losing their visas.

The backpacker was a part of the majority.

“I needed the payslips to be able to stay … I didn’t know I had any other options,” she told the jury at trial.

While there has been extensive work done on educating backpackers entering the country’s farming and agriculture industry, the hospitality field remains unexplored territory by unions and human rights organisers.

United Workers Union acting president Lyndal Ryan said employers abusing people in insecure work arrangements was not unheard of.

“Abuse of visa workers across many industries – including cleaning, property services, hospitality and farm work – is all too common, and is often based on the inherent insecurity of workers’ jobs and the link to remaining in Australia,” she said.

“The fact that this vulnerability is abused by unscrupulous employers highlights the importance of worker protections extending to cover all workers, especially when they face rogue behaviour in their workplace.”

Abuse was not just limited to visa workers.

The Roey used subcontracting arrangements for a number of jobs at the bar. It was a power Burchell often exploited, the court was told, including in the sexual assault of two security guards which he was convicted of.

One was sexually assaulted and made to remove a cast she had on her wrist from a car accident.

When asked why they didn’t escalate it with their own management, the women’s answers were simple.

“Due to the nature of the employment, if we declined or turned down shifts we would then be punished with having all our shifts taken away,” one guard told the court.

“I didn’t want to be labelled a complainer,” another said.

“I needed the money,” the skimpy bartender said.

Their comments are familiar to Fileborn.

“There are also significant challenges in reporting sexual harassment, particularly when it is perpetrated by a venue manager or owner,” they said.

“Unless something reaches a criminal threshold of harm, it’s not clear who workers can report to in this context.

“Arguably, there is a need for an independent regulatory body that workers can report incidents to, and for clear mechanisms to hold venues to account if they do not respond appropriately to sexual harassment.”

Worksafe WA said it had not investigated the Roebuck Bay Hotel. The Fair Work Ombudsman declined to comment.

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