Late rush to join Newcastle lockout trial as more venues introduce shared database to ban troublemakers

The Newcastle Herald reported on Saturday that 10 of the 24 clubs invited to participate in the trial had not yet accepted, but it is understood most signed up before the deadline on Monday.

From Friday, the participating venues in the inner-city and Hamilton can admit patrons until closing time and serve shots and cocktails after 10pm.

The participating venues are Argyle House, Cambridge Hotel, Clarendon Hotel, Crown & Anchor Hotel, King Street Hotel, Family Hotel, Grand Hotel, Great Northern Hotel, Hamilton Station, The Lucky Hotel, Customs House Hotel, Newcastle Hotel, Queens Wharf Brewery, Finnegan's, QT Hotel East End, The Exchange Hotel, The Greenroof, Kent Hotel, Northern Star Hotel, Sydney Junction Hotel, Bar Petite, The Rogue Scholar and The Station.

Meanwhile, Newcastle Liquor Accord has adopted the Barred From One Barred From All system used in Maitland and other regional towns to deter bad behaviour.

Licensees will share names and photographs of patrons who commit offences inside or at the door of their premises. Police will also notify the venues of arrests.

A committee will then weigh up whether to ban customers from all venues.

A handful of Newcastle venues have used shared identification scanning since 2012 to ban unwelcome patrons and check for fake IDs.

Hoteliers have credited that scanning system with helping their pubs slip off the list of the state's most violent venues.

Liquor accord chairman Mick Starkey said Barred From One would run across venues in the accord to identify "the worst of the worst".

"If you commit an offence, you won't be welcome," he said. "Hopefully, this will stop people coming from out of town and going on a rampage."

Newcastle police commander Wayne Humphrey said the shared database would be an effective tool to limit anti-social behaviour.

City of Newcastle has also backed the system.

Mr Starkey said it would be difficult for venues without ID scanning to identify banned customers at the door, but security staff could be shown photographs and names of offenders.

"We hope this will be a deterrent. People will be told they've been barred," he said. "Over time it will become known that you don't play up in Newcastle."

Mr Starkey welcomed the start of the trial of relaxed trading rules, which has been opposed by doctors, the police union and Hunter New England Health.

"I think we'll all soon realise we were worried about nothing," he said.

Inner-city Newcastle and Hamilton are the only parts of the state with lockouts still in place after the government removed them in Sydney's CBD last year and Kings Cross this year.

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