Raw sugar came in on the tramline. Now it is dinner and ten tables of cards.
The weighbridge plate is still set into the floor by the door, the narrow-gauge rails run under the tables and out through the wall, and the loading gantry holds the lights. We cook off the cane valley, pour ginger beer brewed down the road, and run ten card tables where the chips are scorekeepers and nothing more.
A sugar store that took its last consignment in 2009
The building was a receiving store: cane came off the narrow gauge, was weighed at the door and stacked under the gantry until a truck took it out. When the tramline was lifted the store had nothing left to receive and it shut.
We took the lease with the rails, the weighbridge plate and the gantry all in place, and none of it moved. The kitchen went into the loading end and the bar into the weighbridge office, which is the only room in the building with a door on it.
Eighty people fit under the gantry before it gets loud. That is where we stop taking bookings, and it is why we would rather turn you away on a Friday than cram you in.
- Ten tables
- Set between the rails, re-felted each summer, lit off the gantry.
- A valley kitchen
- Cane syrup, tropical fruit and a barbecue that runs all evening.
- Seven staff
- Three on the pit, two on the bar, two walking the floor.
Six nights on, one night dark
| Night | Open | What is running |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | 4pm – 12am | Green cut at 6pm, forty-five minutes, free |
| Wednesday | 4pm – 12am | Quiet floor, one long cut, pit does a set plate |
| Thursday | 4pm – 12am | Green cut at 6pm, three cuts after it |
| Friday | 4pm – 12am | Full house, kitchen booked out by seven |
| Saturday | 3pm – 12am | Early doors, cane cutters ladder from 8pm |
| Sunday | 3pm – 10pm | Long afternoon on the pit, early close |
| Monday | Closed | Deliveries, pit cleaned, floor scrubbed |
Six lines stencilled on the consignment plate
Everyone through these doors is 18 or over, including anyone who has only come to eat. Identification is asked for whenever staff choose to ask.
Chips count points and nothing else. They are not sold, not cashed, not swapped at the bar and worth nothing the moment you step outside.
No stake is taken at a table, no prize pool is held and no payout is ever made. Money does not move over a hand of cards anywhere on this property.
There is not a single gaming machine in this building, and no application has ever been made for one.
When a cut ends, stand up. Ten minutes, fresh decks, and the floor gets a chance to seat whoever is waiting.
The bar serves responsibly and decides when someone has had enough. That decision is made once and it is not argued about.
Barbecue, cane syrup and whatever the valley is picking
The pit runs from four until eleven and most of the board comes off it: pork, beef ribs, whole fish, corn and pineapple, all of it glazed with cane syrup boiled down in the kitchen rather than bought in a tin.
The rest is fruit — mango, pawpaw, custard apple, whatever is ripe within an hour of here — cut over chilli and lime, because the barbecue needs something sharp beside it.
Ginger beer is brewed a few streets away and comes on tap, which is unusual and the single most ordered thing in the building. There is beer and a short wine list beside it, and the bar goes until midnight.
- Off the pit
- Pork, ribs, whole fish and corn, glazed in cane syrup.
- Off the trees
- Mango, pawpaw and custard apple with chilli and lime.
- On tap
- Local ginger beer, three beers and four wines by the glass.
Ten tables set between the tram rails
The floor is the old stacking area: hardwood blocks, steel rails, and the gantry overhead carrying every light in the place. The games are social ones — euchre, five hundred, cribbage and friendly poker — with nothing at all riding on them.
Chips keep score for the night. They are house property, they are not sold, they are not cashed, they do not buy a drink, and they go back into the consignment crate when the lights come up.
The evening runs in cuts. Each cut is about an hour, then the floor calls a break, everybody stands up for ten minutes, the decks change and the next cut starts.
- Eight open tables
- First to a free chair takes it — no booking, nothing to pay.
- Two reserved tables
- Held by phone for groups of four to six.
- Green cut
- Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm, forty-five minutes, for people who have never played.
Six questions we field most weeks
- Can I join in from home?
- You cannot, because there is nowhere to join. Marrix is one building on Bourbong Street — no app, no account, no internet room, nothing to log into. If you are not standing on the hardwood, nothing is happening.
- Is there money in it?
- None at any stage. Chips are scorekeepers with no cash value, nothing is staked when you sit down and nothing is paid out when you leave. There is no wagering of any kind on the premises.
- What about pokies?
- There are none here at all. We hold a kitchen and bar licence and that is the whole extent of it.
- What is a cut?
- An hour of play, then a ten-minute break for everybody at once. The name comes off the old cane gangs and the reason is simple: the tables stay fresh and the pit gets a clean run at the orders.
- Do I need to book a table?
- For the kitchen on Friday and Saturday, yes, and early. For the eight open card tables there is nothing to book at all.
- Can I bring a teenager if they only eat?
- No. The whole building is over-18s, dining included, and there is no separate family area.
Rails, gantry, felt and the pit
Where the store is and when it is open
63 Bourbong Street, Bundaberg QLD 4670
+61 7 4152 9930 · weighbridge@playmarrix.com
Tuesday to Sunday, 4pm – midnight
The plate on the wall by the weighbridge
Four lines were stencilled on the old consignment plate when the store still took cane, and four different ones are on it now. They cover just about every question anybody asks at the door.
One call to the weighbridge office
+61 7 4152 9930Somebody picks up from two in the afternoon. A name, a number and a headcount is the entire booking — no deposit is taken, no card is held, and cancelling costs you nothing but the phone call.
Ring the store