Tilley's Devine Café Gallery is a well-known café in the suburb of Lyneham in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, Australia. It was named after Matilda 'Tilly' Devine, an English Australian gangster and madame from Sydney. When the café first opened in 1984, it was intended as a women's space, with men allowed entry only when accompanied by women. Popular with lesbian women, it quickly became an icon of Canberra's

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

scene. Attempts to restrict or limit entry of men brought challenges, most notably by a group of cadets from the

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who attempted to force their way in, instigating a brawl. The policy was maintained for two years. Tilley's originally had seating for 60, but subsequently expanded five times, and now has large indoor and outdoor eating areas. It was once a popular space for night time concerts by local musicians, hosting names such as Wayne Kelly,

Mia Dyson Mia Celeste Dyson (born 1981) is an Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist. She has released six studio albums. Her second, ''Parking Lots'', won the ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005. Since 2013, D ...

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, and

Clare Bowditch Clare Bowditch (born 1975) is an Australian musician, actress, radio presenter and business entrepreneur. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006, Bowditch won the ARIA Award for Best Female Artist and was nominated for a Logie Award for her work on ...

. In 2005 concerts were scaled back in order to expand the more financially viable restaurant and café. According to ACT historian Roslyn Russell, it was the first licensed outdoor venue in Australia, and the first Australian bar to ban

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...

indoors.

References

Restaurants in Canberra Buildings and structures in Canberra LGBT culture in Australia Coffeehouses and cafés in Australia {{canberra-stub