Waiting to inhale as the ban played on

Hannah Galloway (left) and Jacqueline Pinder at Madam Brussels' rooftop bar. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

• Mario Xuereb
• June 1, 2008

WHEN St Kilda's Local Taphouse pub reopened in February, refurbished as a classic beer bar, its patrons couldn't wait for a sit-down drink and smoke on the newly decked-out terrace. But the moment they lit up, the pub's staff told them to butt out. "Sorry, we're no smoking," came the directive from owner Steve Jeffares.

Had the punters missed something? Surely the State Government's ban on smoking in bars, clubs and pubs — brought in nearly 12 months ago — applied inside only.

Technically, yes. But Mr Jeffares, emboldened by his pub's seven-month redesign and the new ban, declared the local a nicotine no-go zone.

"We designed it to be Melbourne's first non-smoking terrace and beer garden," said Mr Jeffares. "In hindsight, it was a little naive."

After just three weeks, the ban was cast out because of smokers' anger at another move to sideline them. Non-smokers were also miffed at the open-air smoking ban.

"(I put in the ban) because I felt that smoking (outside) would be an inconvenience to non-smokers, but as it turned out, they couldn't give two hoots," said Mr Jeffares. "The smokers made it pretty clear that they were not happy, so we changed it and made it into a smoking area."

It was a small victory for smokers under siege. One year on, the anti-smoking lobby is hailing the government bans a success, and it plans to take them further.

"The sky hasn't fallen in," said the Australian Medical Association's Victorian president, Douglas Travis. "It was predicted that hundreds of pubs and clubs would go broke, that people wouldn't go out any more, but that hasn't come to pass. We are starting to win the war on smoking."

The pub and bar scene has been shaken and stirred, mostly for the better, say some observers. Michelle Matthews, publisher of the popular Deck of Secrets bar guide, believes the ban transformed Melbourne bars and pubs architecturally, with licensed venues upgrading their outdoor areas for smokers.

"The nice thing about the Melbourne bar culture is that it is mostly based on small venues run by really interested business owners. So when the rules changed, these people made it work," said Ms Matthews. "Now it seems you can't open a bar in Melbourne without an outdoors of some size."

The results include a faux tropical resort atop Bourke Street (Palmz at the Carlton) and an artificial-turf bar with a camp country club motif (Madame Brussels).

"Madame Brussels is a great example of bar anticipating the effect of the smoking ban," Ms Matthews said.

"The deck space comprises about 50% of the total and is a key feature. It gives the bar a daytime relevance that it wouldn't otherwise have."

She said bars with decent-sized outdoor areas were becoming afternoon destinations, and probably taking some customers away from unlicensed cafes.

The anti-smoking lobby blames cigarette companies for spurring the wave of outdoor bars dodging the smoking ban.

Fiona Sharkie, executive director of Quit, said: "We expected the tobacco industry to do everything they could to ensure outdoor areas remain for smoking, including providing financial incentives for venues that renovated in order to create open-air smoking areas. Considering the overwhelming support for smoke-free areas amongst both smokers and non-smokers, you have to question the business sense of promoting or creating an area that many may try to avoid."

The ban had had a health impact, Ms Sharkie said, with more people trying to quit smoking and those who persisted cutting down as the opportunities to smoke dwindled.

And dwindle they will. "The bans are not complete," Ms Sharkie said. "Our preference is to see bans completely and not being able to smoke in outdoor cafes or beer gardens. We are not sure of the political support for a complete ban but it's something that we will be advocating."

Publican Roman Leopoldseder tends to disagree.

"My opinion is that the nanny state has gone as far as it should go at this stage. It would be severe to ban smoking completely in licensed premises, and I mean a really severe blow," he said.

Mr Leopoldseder runs Labour in Vain in Fitzroy, which suffered a two-month slump after the ban, before picking up again. He renovated the pub's outdoor area in response to the ban, but customers were still wary.

"A lot of our patrons stayed for shorter spaces of time and drank less. Most were smokers who found themselves having to go outside to smoke in the middle of winter. That kind of broke up their social time and they'd end up going home," Mr Leopoldseder said.

"We were nervous, but in the end the social aspect of being in a pub prevailed over the need to have a cigarette. People are smoking less, but I haven't noticed a significant amount of people quitting."

While Mr Leopoldseder, a smoker, delights in no longer reeking of smoke at closing time, a complete ban might be hard to swallow.

Mr Jeffares said that was a lesson he had already learned — smokers and non-smokers will only take so much regulation.

"What stood out to me was that people expect in an outdoor space that there will be smokers in their midst.

"And smokers who hated my ban left the premises and wouldn't come back until we changed it. They were far more obvious and far more vocal than those non-smokers who said, 'Isn't it great?' "