From Hunters Hill to the Star and beyond: The ultimate ICAC pub crawl across Sydney

After 38 days of entertaining, intriguing and, at times, infuriating hearings, it was a “sellout” for the very last day of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny.

One of those competing for a seat in the public gallery, Rose, told the Herald that she wants to establish an ICAC pub crawl.

First stop would be the Hunters Hill Hotel, where the now-fired head of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, discovered his account blocked on a Friday night. Over the weekend, he managed to do a “factory reset” on his phone and iPad, wiping all the contents.

McInerney was between ICAC appearances and was given the weekend to produce any messages between him and certain other persons of interest to the inquiry. But when he returned after the break, he informed the commission his bank account had been compromised and he’d done a factory reset.

Accused of engaging in “a transparent attempt to wipe evidence”, McInerney was aghast. “Had I wanted to do any malfeasance of that nature, I would have had quite the runway to do that,” McInerney protested.

Next stop, offered Rose, would be The Royal Oak in Double Bay, where pub crawlers would leave their phones two tables away. The commission heard that on the morning of June 24, 2025, one of the key persons of interest at this inquiry, lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood, gave evidence at a private hearing of the commission.

Later that same day, Greenwood headed to the Oak to meet another key person of interest, Jean-Claude Perrottet, a member of the hard right of the Liberal Party and the younger brother of former premier Dom Perrottet.

CCTV from the pub showed the pair leaving their phones at another table, some metres away.

It is an offence, which can attract a jail term, to discuss evidence given at a secret hearing – or even to disclose you’ve been summoned to one.

Greenwood denied he was deploying evasive surveillance methods. Counsel assisting, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked: “So do you say that when you go to any pub with your friends, you deliberately put your phones at another table, a few tables away?”

He replied: “It’s not uncommon for me to do that at all. I remember Barack Obama once said he never brings a phone into a meeting.”

Then we have the Horse & Jockey Hotel in Homebush where embattled Strathfield mayor Matthew Blackmore met up with fellow councillor Karen Pensabene, one of the alleged blackmailers trying to oust him from the mayoralty. It was January 16, 2023, and Blackmore had learnt over the previous days that Labor councillor Sharangan Maheswaran had organised five months of surveillance on him to force him to give up the mayor’s job.

They’d gone to the pub after Blackmore had told Pensabene: “I feel sick that my children have been surveillanced (sic) by Sharangan’s undercover people. I can’t go home right now, knowing that. I’m just driving round aimlessly. I need a drink.”

The pub crawlers could make a quick stop at Star Casino where, in September 2019, disgraced developer and high-roller Jean Nassif was arrested – and ultimately convicted – for cocaine possession.

Then it’s off to the Longueville Hotel in Lane Cove. Enjoying a beer on the night of January 28, 2021, were Charles Perrottet, Maheswaran, Greenwood and Christian Ellis.

The inquiry has heard that Maheswaran, a lawyer and Nassif’s right-hand man, was handing Perrottet a cheque for $148,500 from Nassif, to be used by the other three for alleged dodgy dealings to advance Nassif’s development interests.

Greenwood and Ellis had set up a lobbying company Beckington, which Nassif used to channel otherwise banned donations. Ellis, Greenwood and Perrottet allegedly split $2 million that Nassif washed through Beckington.

As it turned out, Maheswaran didn’t bring the cheque, and it was handed to Perrottet the following day.

There is also a planned ICAC pub trivia, with questions about how many times Dwyer said: “Let me refresh your memory”, and how many times Anita Perrottet said: “I don’t recall”.

Also in the quiz will be the string of nicknames, including “Papal Baguette”, the moniker Maheswaran gave to Charles Perrottet [understood to be a reference to Perrottet being a member of Opus Dei and his surname being French].

“The Rat” was Maheswaran’s nickname for another member of the hard-right, Robert Assaf, whom he thought might be talking to authorities.

“Concord” was their nickname for Nassif, who had an office in Concord.

And lastly, “Shenanigans”, the nickname Dwyer asked Sharangan Maheswaran about. He corrected her, saying his nickname at school was “Shanigans”.

As Operation Rosny wraps up, many of the witnesses, whose evidence had been shredded and their reputations damaged, might raise a glass and think of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, who once observed: “Here’s to alcohol, the rose-coloured glasses of life.”

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