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Melbourne · Venue

The Croxton

A large standing-room bandroom inside a long-running Thornbury pub, built for touring rock shows and clear views of a very wide stage.

Upcoming shows
18
Address
607 High Street, 3071 Thornbury
Phone
(03) 9480 2233
Next show
Sat, 21 Nov 2026
Official siteDirections
The Croxton in Melbourne

About The Croxton

The Croxton is a Thornbury, Melbourne pub and live-music room with a standing capacity estimated at roughly 600–800. Its defining feature is the former ballroom behind the hotel: a broad, open bandroom centred on a 14-metre-wide stage, with clear views across the floor. That scale gives touring guitar bands, metal bills and electronic-leaning shows room to build a full production while keeping the audience in one shared space.

A ballroom, a reset, and opening night

The venue traces its service history to 1844, while the University of Melbourne’s eMelbourne archive identifies the first hotel on the site as the Pilgrim Inn in 1850–51. It served travellers and bullock-team drivers before becoming the Croxton Park Hotel; a privately owned racecourse ran behind it between 1869 and 1873. The original hotel came down in 1897, leaving the 20th-century successor known locally as the Croc. A large ballroom arrived at the rear during the mid-20th century and became a pub-rock stage in the 1970s and 1980s, hosting acts including AC/DC, Skyhooks, INXS and Men at Work. In 2015, former Hi-Fi Bar booker Andrew Parisi pitched a live-music revival to owner ALH Group; the room received cosmetic and acoustic work, a new PA and fold-back system. The relaunch opened on October 1, 2015 with You Am I, Bahamas and Fraser A. Gorman, establishing the present bandroom’s direction toward contemporary touring artists.

How the room plays now

The Croxton’s booking identity centres on contemporary local and international touring acts, with rock, alternative, metal, electronic, country and folk all fitting its scale. Expect a standing-floor experience in a wide room, with the 14-metre stage and strong sightlines doing much of the practical work. Two audience bars and a beer garden support the gig-night flow, while the adjoining bistro offers a useful pre-show base for a meal before doors.

Sources

  1. Croxton — eMelbourne: The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online, University of Melbourne
  2. Welcome To The Croxton — The Croxton
  3. The Croxton — Beat Magazine
  4. The Croxton Bandroom Melbourne Tickets & Event Listings — Ticket Fairy
  5. Oztix renews partnership with The Croxton Bandroom — Australasian Leisure Management

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