An independent record, written in Hobart
Sandy Bay Almanac
This is an independent, Hobart-written record of how Australia's casino licences came to be granted, and of the buildings raised to house them.
The record is compiled from public documents and heritage listings, and it begins with Tasmania's 1968 referendum and Wrest Point's opening in 1973, the country's first legal casino.
The register limits itself to how a licence was granted and how the resulting building was designed, built or adapted. Betting odds, promotions and current opening hours are left to operators' own materials, since they fall outside an independent record.
This publication takes no bets, holds no deposits, and runs no casino or gaming service, existing only to record how Australia's casino licences and their buildings came to be.
Elsewhere in the Almanac
Three further sections extend the record beyond this page, each written to stand on its own rather than to duplicate what appears here.
01
The Guide
A state-by-state account of how each Australian casino licence was granted and the building raised or adapted to hold it, from the 1968 vote onward.
Each state's entry follows the same order: the vote or act that created the licence, the opening date, and the architecture that resulted.
02
The Glossary
Working definitions of licensing terms, gaming-floor categories and heritage-listing language, kept apart from the narrative pages so the record stays precise and easy to check.
Terms such as gaming floor, licence condition and heritage listing are defined once here and then linked wherever they recur.
03
The Journal
Shorter dispatches on individual buildings, licence anniversaries and corrections to earlier entries, published as each is confirmed rather than to a fixed schedule.
Dispatches of this kind have covered heritage disputes and licence renewals as they occur, each one dated and linked back to the guide's longer account.
Kept by Helen Tregear
Helen Tregear edits Sandy Bay Almanac from Hobart, checking each entry against the public record before it is published and correcting earlier entries when better documents surface.
She cross-checks each opening date against state gazettes, newspaper archives and heritage-register citations before it is added to the guide.
Her editorial approach and the sources this record relies on are set out in full on the about and editorial pages, alongside how corrections are handled.
Send a correction or a source
Readers who notice an error, or who hold a document that clarifies a disputed date, are asked to write directly to the editor.
The same applies to a source this record has missed, since corrections and leads both belong with the editor rather than with a general inbox.
A useful message names the building or licence in question and points to the document being cited, so the entry can be corrected quickly.