Historic Gus' Place to close after 57 years

Gus's Place will serve its last famed Brekky Burger or Open Steak Sando or Huevos Sucios (Dirty Eggs) at 2.30 on Sunday afternoon.

Then the developers move in.

The place is significant because it was the first to serve food on tables outside - and that victory only came after a five-year fight with deep bureaucracy.

The owner Augustin 'Gus' Petersilka's triumph then allowed restaurants in Canberra to serve outdoors "continental style", and that changed the whole atmosphere of the city.

As its heritage listing later put it, "the perceived 'dead' centre of the city acquired 'heart and soul'."

But the city centre's transformation didn't come without trouble.

When tables and chairs - and very quickly diners - had first appeared on the pavement more than 50 years ago, the Department of the Interior was outraged. It informed Mr Petersilka that it was "an offence under the Roads and Public Places Ordinance 1937-66 to place any obstruction in, over or across a public place without the authority of the Minister or an authorised officer".

But the owner who had fled Nazi-ruled Vienna was not bowing to that. Oh no. He got up a petition which eventually went to the Queen. The men from the ministry backed down.

The establishment of the café in 1967 brought a bit of Viennese style to Canberra.

Or rather Central European style because it was originally called the Prague Coffee Bar despite Mr Petersilka's Viennese origin.

Gus, who died in 1994, had thought Canberra deserved a taste of the restaurant his father ran before fleeing Vienna.

The Canberra version may have lacked some of the original's authenticity, though. Gus remembered that his father's Viennese restaurant was the cradle of the Austrian union movement. "Many of the unions were formed there and when strikes were on that is where the unions met-and to get something to eat".

Now the developers are moving in with plans for a luxury 11-storey hotel in Garema Place.

The café was heritage-listed in 1994 but that won't stop its demolition. The listing is more about its "intangible heritage" rather than the "physical fabric of the building".

"Gus' cafe is strongly linked to the phase of cultural and social development and change in Canberra whereby the perceived 'dead' centre of the city acquired 'heart and soul' through provision of public outdoor, and therefore highly visible, cafe/restaurant facilities as social meeting places," the listing reads.

The developers TP Dynamics have indicated they would recreate Gus' Place. But the redevelopment is likely to take years.

And it is not certain how similar the new café would be. Would it just be the name that stayed the same? Would it feel the same as the existing old world bistro with its continuing Viennese charm?

The Canberra Times contacted the developers but they were unable to say.

In 1978, Gus was made Canberra Citizen of the year.

The ACT Government recognised his achievement: "Gus had a love-hate relationship with Canberra, declaring his love of a place that allowed him to speak out and gave him a fair go, but also expressing his disgust at its over-planning and narrow-mindedness and, albeit briefly, removing his business to Queanbeyan in late 1978, and again leaving to return to Vienna in 1984.

"While in Vienna he wrote a letter to all Canberrans via The Canberra Times, stating that 'whatever shortcomings Canberra has, its good points outweigh them by far'. He came home to Canberra in 1985."