Your chances of being assaulted in Newcastle before the lockout laws were very high. I doubt you would be having much fun in the Emergency Department, getting stitched up.
I have no info on what effect the licensing changes had, but I can vouch that Newcastle could be genuinely scary on a Saturday night. You haven't lived until you've hidden under a table while pint glass missiles hurtle overhead around a revolving dance floor on a boat on the Tyne.
I think that's the other Newcastle. This one is north of Sydney (I guess they are both north of Sydney, but there's a bit of a hike to the one on the Tyne...)
Of course the heavy handedness of the Star Hotel has been long forgotten; now of course they boil the frog slower, so instead of riots we now have malaise and the brain drain.
In the end there will still be loss, but this time it won't be accompanied regeneration. In time Sydney will become a financial / service sector equivalent of Port Kembla unless the ship is turned around.
