This Bob Hawke pokie machine wants you to have a slap for the planet

Hawke’s Brewing Co. has installed a custom pokie machine that donates its proceeds to environmental causes. Positioned by the company as a ‘game for good’, it encourages patrons to have a slap for the planet. Nestled in the company’s hospitality venue, the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre in Marrickville, it offers a novel approach to supporting environmental projects, with each beer purchase coming with a ‘donation token’ for the game.

A ‘pokie’ for the planet

Named ‘King of The Climate’ — a playful nod to the iconic King of the Nile pokie machines — it honours Bob Hawke, the late former prime minister of Australia and a co-founder of Hawke’s Brewing Co.

Each week a particular beer is chosen, and every patron who orders it receives a token. They can also choose to donate it directly at the bar instead.

According to co-founder Nathan Lennon, King of The Climate is designed as a non-harmful alternative to traditional gambling machines, ensuring each play results in a donation to local environmental projects.

“It really came out of this insight that billions of dollars go through pokie machines every year. I mean, it’s an Australian pastime. But at the same time, only $300 million a year is donated to environmental causes,” Lennon said to SmartCompany.

“And it just got us thinking — if we could go back in time and create a gaming machine, what would it look like? And how would it connect to the values that we try and hold up as a business?”

The machine offers an array of prizes, including beer, merchandise, and snacks from the on-site restaurant — The Lucky Prawn. Patrons have the option to donate the value of their prizes to the jackpot pool, which is then given to an environmental group when Bob Hawke’s Pharaonic headdress-clad head triggers the jackpot, complete with celebratory lights.

While each player only gets one token per beer, there is still a concern that encouraging people to “have a slap” could have a negative connotation considering the addictive nature of pokie machines.

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“I think the best ideas are the ones that have tension in them. So we understood that in doing this could, there could be points of view like that,” Lennon said.

“But ultimately we stand on the values in which we’re doing it. There is no money exchange and it’s been passed through Liquor & Gaming NSW. It’s not a license machine. So if anything, I hope that we’re actually encouraging the opposite — a feeling of you ‘actually, I don’t really get much value out of the real thing. I get more value out of this.’”

Bob was never just about beer

Bob Hawke is remembered not only for his charismatic leadership and sinking cold ones at the cricket. He’s also celebrated for his commitment to environmental preservation, earning himself the nickname The Environmental PM’.

Hawke’s environmental advocacy with notably permeated by the establishment of Landcare in 1989. Lennon reminisces on this and also draws a parallel between Hawke’s early environmental wins and the proceeds for King of the Climate.

“One of his first environmental achievements as prime minister was saving Franklin River down in Tasmania from being dammed,” Lennon said.

And it was a big one. The proposal for the dam was first floated in 1978 and by 1982 it had become a federal issue, with Hawke making it one of his campaign promises.  What resulted was a battle between the federal and Tasmanian governments with a High Court ruling in the former’s favour.

“The donations from the game are actually going back to support our local environmental group, The Mudcrabs, who predominantly look after rehabilitating the habitat around the Cooks River, which needs a lot of work done to it.”

The centre also holds an old-school meat raffle for The Mudcrabs every Wednesday night as another avenue for raising money.

“Bob fought for the Franklin and we’re fighting for the Cooks River,” Lennon said.

Sustainability is also at the heart of the brewery and the leisure centre. The roof is home to a 100kW rooftop solar installation, which Lennon says can power a large portion of the inner-west establishment on a sunny day.

The company has also partnered with community-owned and renewables-focused energy provider, Enova, for any additional electricity needs from the grid.

Why name a beer and a brewery after Bob Hawke?

The inception of Hawke’s Brewing Co. traces back to a snowstorm in New York, where co-founders Nathan Lennon and David Gibson, felt a profound sense of homesickness for Australia.

They found themselves asking who in the world they would most love to have a beer with, with Gibson landing on Bob Hawke. From there, an idea sparked – a beer company that could embody the essence of Australian identity, community, and commitment to the environment.

Their admiration for Bob Hawke as a unifying figure who transcended political boundaries and his environmental legacy resulted in the pair vowing to quit their jobs and move home if they received anything other than a hard no from Hawke.

Going through his wife Blanche, Gibson and Lennon eventually found themselves in Hawke’s kitchen, pitching for their futures. Halfway through the presentation, Hawke is said to have stopped them in their tracks, asking “Boys. Why is this going to work?”

“Mr Hawke… this has to work. Not only have we quit our jobs, we’ve told our boss you’ve already said yes,” Lennon recalled saying.

Apparently, this made the former PM laugh and said “Well, I’d be a bum if I said no, wouldn’t I”.

As it turns out, Lennon and Gibson didn’t have to be so worried about their pitch.

“I found out later in a biography he done with Derek Rielly called Wednesdays with Bob that he had actually already made his mind up that he wanted to do this,” Lennon said.

“But he wanted a sense test. Are these guys in it for the right reason? Are they going to are they going to be okay? Can I trust them with my reputation, my legacy?”

The rest is, as they say, history. While Hawke approved the use of his likeness and became a co-founder of the company, he forwent any personal financial interest. Instead, he donated his benefit to provide support to the company’s partnership with Landcare Australia.

Other sustainability projects include using the brewery’s spent grain and yeast to feed cows in Oberon, as well as reducing water consumption to 3.3L of water per 1L of beer. Comparatively, most small breweries use 7L per 1L.

This is going straight in the pool room

While Hawke lived to see Hawke’s Brewing Co. launch in 2017, he unfortunately passed away in 2019, before the doors were opened on the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre.

The Centre itself is designed to evoke the cultural and social milieu of Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of significant change and growth in the nation’s history.

The entire aesthetic is a throwback to this deeply specific time in Australian history – from its light wooden panelling to Richie Benaud cricket commentary flooding the bathrooms.

The space is punctuated with a Chinese-Australian-style restaurant as well as a pool room filled with a plethora of pictures of Hawke and assorted Australiana memorabilia, such as an Ansett carry-on bag.

“It’s an expression of the Hawke’s brand in terms of experience — super nostalgic, giving people a chance to essentially hop in a time capsule and go back to an era that was quite culturally significant for our country,” Lennon said,

“Delving into nostalgia and tapping back into that emotion around what it was like 40 years ago, to either be in or grow up in Australia.”

This overall aesthetic and the nostalgia it invokes were also inspired by Bob, as well as Lennon and Gibson’s experience in his personal pool room the first time they met him.

“It had a really big snooker table and a really long wall, similar to this, with framed photos of him with like every legend you’ve ever wanted to meet. True icons like Neil Armstrong and Nelson Mandela,” Lennon said.

“When we left David and I were like, ‘how epic is that pool room? If we ever have our own brewery we’ll have one and that’s how people are gonna learn about Bob — with a schooner in their hand and game a pool. That will be the museum concept.”

While Hawke never got to see the pool room, he loved the idea.

“Blanche was in tears when she walked in here for the first time. She loves what we’ve done, but I think it’s a challenging place for her because it just it’s it’s him everywhere.”