The “black stump” is a mythical point dividing civilisation from the remote Australian outback. Not, you’d think, a very upmarket brand for a chain of restaurants. However, when a butcher, Arthur Parsonage, decided to find an extra outlet for his steaks, he chose a name that was unmistakably Australian. Parsonage was ahead of his time, pioneering casual dining 15 years before Sizzler launched in this country.
The first Black Stump restaurant was in Pennant Hills, Sydney, and by 1972, there were Black Stumps in Blacktown, French’s Forest, Killara and Liverpool. It wasn’t an extensive menu and, as you’d expect from a butcher’s restaurant, it featured meat, meat and more meat. There were two entrées: oysters, or prawns wrapped in bacon. Either could be ordered as a large or small serving. Light eaters were catered for with some smaller meaty dishes: lamb chops, grilled ground sirloin (aka a hamburger), pork chops or a “sizzling steak”. But the main course was all about steaks, ham steak and pineapple being the only non-beefy option.
In the early ’70s, the most expensive main course was $3.50 and all mains came with a tossed salad (choice of dressings), baked potato (choice of toppings), onion rings and garlic bread. There was a children’s menu with drinks including the Fire Engine and the Shirley Temple – variations on red lemonade. Despite the potential for hyperactive kids, the chain remained popular with parents for decades.
Arthur Parsonage died in 1975 – apparently in the Pennant Hills restaurant which, according to a former staff member, continued to be haunted by his ghost. Arthur’s son, Rob, took over as head of the chain in addition to his other enterprises, which included KFC franchises and butcher shops. The Black Stump restaurants proliferated. At one time there were as many as 30, all in New South Wales. In the late 1980s, they introduced a ‘shop-a-dockets’ scheme making the restaurants even more affordable.
The menu expanded over the years. By 1994, the standard steaks had been supplemented with fancier versions including Surf and Turf and Beef Wellington. There were Caesar salads, Atlantic salmon, steak and kidney pie, and grilled chicken, all washed down with cocktails or wine by the glass, carafe or bottle. By then, a steak would set you back around $13.95.
In 1995, the Black Stump chain was still opening new restaurants. Terry Durack wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald about the revival of steak.
This humble slab of protein is without doubt the great survivor of the food world. It has outlasted cholesterol and heart disease scares, carcinogenic slurs, and obesity murmurings. Worse still, it has suffered the ignominy of being exiled to the fashion desert for the best part of 20 years as we’ve nouvelled, pac rimmed and mod medded our way through the ’80s and ’90s.
Now it’s time for the Revenge of the Steak.
The Black Stump restaurant chain has added five new restaurants in the last year and has another eight on the drawing board for the next 18 months.
As late as 1998, the Black Stump opened a new restaurant in Chatswood. Alas, the expansionary trend was not to last. The Revenge of the Steak proved short-lived and people’s taste moved on to more diverse offerings. Takings at some Black Stump restaurants reportedly dipped to just $100 a night. At the end of 2004, the chain – at this point consisting of 15 suburban restaurants – went into receivership. It was purchased by a Malaysian businessman, Peter Chai, with the backing of a Hong Kong-based investment group. Chai proposed to invest in the business to bring the food offering into the 21st century.
Chai’s venture did not succeed. The Black Stump continued to change hands and, in 2007, was purchased by the hotel group, Iris Capital. Despite announcing their intentions to “return the Black Stump to its iconic status” Iris soon closed many of the restaurants. A few staggered on but, after a 40-year history, the last Black Stump folded in 2010 leaving many nostalgic for the prawns in bacon, the Fire Engines, the shop-a-docket discounts and the doggy bags of better days.