Licence categories
Until the end of 2009, the licence categories relevant to music were:
• General licence - hotels, taverns, large bars
• On-premises license - small bars, cafes, restaurants.
In 2010, a new ‘Restaurant and cafe’ licence has been introduced, leaving only smaller bars with the ‘On-premises’ licence type.
Also, Late Night licenses have been introduced (3 types) for premises trading after 1am. The 3 types are:
Late night (General) - hotels, taverns and large bars
Late night (On-premises) - smaller bars
Late night (Packaged liquor)
To complicate things (quote from document)…
Ordinary trading hours for general, on-premises and packaged liquor licences cease at 11pm. Trading after this time is a privilege granted at the discretion of the Director of Liquor Licensing.
This means hotels and bars that don’t have a Late Night license have to put in an extra application (and pay considerably more) to trade between 11pm and 1am.
This information is from Changes to liquor licence categories (pdf) on the Department of Justice website.