Pub baron behind some of Australia’s most famous hotels and dive bars – including the Watsons Bay Hotel
By Brett Lackey For Daily Mail Australia
03:00 30 Dec 2023, updated 07:16 30 Dec 2023
The flagship company of a Sydney-based pub baron behind some of Australia’s best known hospitality venues has collapsed owing creditors $5.5million.
Fraser Short, 48, this month placed The Sydney Collective into the hands of administrators Farnsworth Carson, according to a notice by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published on Thursday.
Mr Short, who lives in a $9million Vaucluse mansion with his wife Allyson and their three children, earlier this year already offloaded most of his pub holdings – many sold to the Laundy Hotel Group in a $300million deal.
The Sydney Collective owes the Australian Taxation Office $1.08million and various trades and suppliers another $297,909, according to ASIC documents.
The remaining $4.41million is owed to the Warwick and Yates Trust which is linked to the Short family. Fraser is the son of the late well-known pub tycoon Warwick Short.
Pub baron Fraser Short (pictured with wife Allyson) has placed his flagship company The Sydney Collective into administration owing $5.5million
The Sydney Collective was accused by the United Workers Union in 2020 of underpaying staff at its Watson’s Bay Hotel, with one chef claiming he would work up to 20 hours of unpaid overtime a week during his four years at the venue.
An agreement was reportedly later reached with three employees to pay outstanding wages, superannuation and annual leave, with Mr Short insisting it was not a wider systemic problem.
Growing up in a pub-owning family Mr Short initially studied interior design but then ventured into opening his own pubs at age 25 with Cargo Bar at King St Wharf in the CBD just before the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
It was a co-venture with parents Warwick and Ros and quickly became one of the most popular venues in the city.
He followed that up with the nearby Bungalow 8 and The Loft in what was developed into the Barangaroo precinct, with both achieving similar success.
He teamed up with the another Sydney pub-owning family, The Laundys, and by 2012 bought the Watson’s Bay Hotel in the city’s east .
The Sydney Collective at one point owned the Watson Bay Hotel (pictured) with the Laundy family Mr Short owned Bungalow 8 at BarangarooHis first pub was Cargo Bar
The partnership went on to snap up The Mona Vale Hotel on the Northern Beaches and Northies at Cronulla.
By 2020, they had ventured to the north of the state buying Byron Bay venue The Farm and the nearby Lennox and Illawong Hotels.
Short’s The Sydney Collective then partnered up with other investors to purchase the Balcony Bar in Byron Bay, Sir George Hotel in Jugiong near Canberra and the Fitzroy Hotel in Windsor.
In Sydney, he renovated The Imperial Hotel, turned the former dive bar The Brooklyn Hotel into the upmarket Morrison Bar and Oyster Room and bought into Whalebridge restaurant in Circular Quay.
He turned dive bar The Brooklyn Hotel in the Sydney CBD into the classy Morrison Bar and Oyster Room (pictured) Mr Short lives in Vaucluse with Allyson and their three children (pictured in 2006)
Then, in early 2023, Short offloaded several of his pubs, with six going to the Laundy’s.
The scale and speed of the sell-off reportedly sparked whispers in pub industry circles.
Mr Short has not revealed his motivation to let go of the assets other than to say: ‘Arthur (Laundy) made me a really good offer which allowed me to take some money off the table and focus on being a better dad’ .
‘Running this business is a seven days a week job. I’m almost 50. My late dad, Warwick, a successful publican, was only 60 when he died,’ Mr Short said.
