The Benjamin Bar

Unfortunately due to staff shortages, we are unable to open our venue this evening. We apologise for any inconvenience and look forward to serving your favourite cocktails, gins & whisky from Wednesday thru to Saturday next week 🍸

Did you know we have a sister business? We'd like to introduce you to Polly Baker and invite you to follow her pages: Facebook - Polly Baker | Instagram -

Polly Baker is a Café located within the light & bright foyer of Gippsland Performing Arts Centre / / GPAC and is brought to you by us, The Benjamin on Franklin. Open 7 days a week, from 8am to 4pm as well as during showtimes, we have seating available inside and outside.

So who is Polly Baker? Polly Baker is one of several pseudonyms of Benjamin Franklin. Although he didn't admit it for several decades, he wrote The Speech of Miss Polly Baker in 1747 to highlight the patriarchal structure and gender inequality issues within the judicial system of the time. Printed and circulated around the world, it appealed the injustice of women being brought before courts (and of being publicly whipped and fined) for the crime of bearing children out of wedlock. Polly Baker's legend became a heroine.