Over the course of 150 years, the double-gabled Bridge Hotel — known colloquially as the Forth pub — has seen every kind of triumph and tragedy.
An icon of live music and community spirit in north-west Tasmania, it is also the site of murder, and home to stories about rioting, fire, and a poisoned dog.
So much so, in fact, that licensee Trent Allen once asked its rumoured ghosts to "quieten down" after sleepless hours upstairs.
"If you've stayed here overnight, there's definitely something goes on," he said.
"They're friendly, Ernie and Elizabeth. They just add to the colour of the place.
"But early days here I tried sleeping up there and then the footsteps started.
"The doors opening and shutting, so I got up because I thought someone was breaking in. In the end I had to just say, 'That's enough. I'm going to sleep'."
This weekend will be noisier than usual at Forth's Bridge Hotel, with a sold out weekend of live music, headlined by Cat Empire and Peking Duck, scheduled to celebrate its 150-year milestone.
A murderous week
Ernie is said to be the ghost of 1972, the pub's centenary year, and a dark one for the town.
A fire nearly destroyed the hotel and, in the following week, the licensee's dog, Hey You, was poisoned.
In the final act, the licensee himself, Ernie Morrison, was shot dead at the back steps of the hotel. A local man was jailed for his murder.
Stories abound
Stories like this have been under the microscope by the Forth History Group for many months.
Members have been toiling on a stool in the main bar, or in a quieter corner of the lounge bar by the fireplace, collecting pub lore.
Stories include an election day gathering in the 1870s that turned into a small riot, during which police were injured.
In the 1930s, a jilted bride-to-be named Elizabeth reportedly took her own life in an upstairs room.
People say her face still appears at the window.
And in the 1970s, a baby was born at the front door of the pub.
A town built on timber
The history group has also produced some slide shows to screen at this weekend's music event.
"Forth itself really began when James Fenton rowed into the river mouth [now Turners Beach] to access the land where he settled," member Glenyce Surtees said.
"He found it really hard to clear the land because it was so heavily timbered.
"But after a trip to the goldfields in Victoria, he realised there was actually a big market for that timber.
"He came back and started employing timbermen and paling splitters."
The pub came a couple of decades later — opened in 1872 by John Liddle.
Edward Braddon, who later became Tasmania's premier, regularly held meetings at the pub despite being a teetotaller.
"He certainly knew where to come to get his votes," Mr Surtees said.
Blues on the Forth delta
In more contemporary times, live music has been a major part of the pub's story.
Former licensees Chris and Maud Bramich played a major role in the establishment of the Forth Valley Blues Festival during the 1990s.
They would book a lot blues bands at the pub and then get on stage and jam with them.
"Maud [Maureen] would have her washboard and thimbles behind the bar," said local musician Grant Hearps, a Forth Pub regular since he was 15.
"The locals would tell the visiting act about her and they'd often ask her up."
He said Mr Bramich would sometimes join in as well on his bongo drums.
"They loved it," Mr Hearps said. "It was truly the home of the blues in Tassie."
Renowned Tasmanian blues guitarist Pete Cornelius, a pub and festival regular, was even younger than Mr Hearps when he played his first gig there.
"I must have been 13, playing at the first Forth Blues Festival with my dad, but I'm pretty sure we'd played the Forth pub a few times already by then," Cornelius said.
"It was a great experience as a youngster. I got so much healthy support from older generation musicians at those festivals.
"The Forth pub was vital, I think, in my having a career. It helped me build my confidence."
Bigger bands, bigger crowds
Since taking over the pub eight years ago, Mr Allen has looked to up the ante for live music at Forth, hosting some big names in more contemporary styles like electronic dance music band Pnau, indie rockers Thirsty Merc, and legendary Melbourne punk rock band Cosmic Psychos.
Forth History Group chairman Ray Baldock said that while the post office or school was often the heart of a small town, the Bridge Hotel was "the heart of Forth".
"The bank traded out of there, the voting happened there," Mr Baldock said.
"I really get the sense that if you took away the hotel, it's rich history, it's notoriety — if that ever happened — it would be a stake through the heart of Forth."
