Might have been mine aswell, i went in '93 and slowly backpacked down from Cairns to Sydney ( then kinda got stuck in Sydney ), did travel a little with my Scuba diving and weekends away with the GF
I landed on my feet with jobs, worked for a guy doing fibreglass shower linings, just laying the mat and rollering out the resin, it was a decent job, earning $10 a hour, now i could get a schooner of VB for $1, my rent in the Kings X house was $35 a week, it left me with alot of money to party, i did try and bar job and lasted 1 and 1/4 hours
I then got a part time job teaching Scuba Diving as i had then done my training up to dive instructor, that just meant weekends away on the lash, i must have been a part time alcoholic back then
I Lived just down the hill in double bay, shared a house for a while less than a 5 mins walk from Kings X hotel, it was fun, but it was just a backpacker shared house with 5 or 6 to a room, people coming and going all the time, i wanted something a little more " homely " and double bay / rushcutters bay vibe was right up my street, i could be a hippy in the day and then walk up the hill to Kings X and party hard at night, i then sort of moved in with a GF who lived near Manly beach
The walk through Kings X in the morning was always a eye opener, you nailed it with the hookers, all desperate for that last chance to earn a few dollars
I wonder what Kings X is like now, i guess it must have cleaned itself up a little now