Veteran hotelier Alistair Flower has relinquished his Long Flat Pub to high-flying newcomers Stephen and Scott McMillan, in a return to the country a century in the making.
Flower Hotels, led by Port Macquarie hotelier Alistair Flower, acquired the hotel in 2021 when it was known as the Traveller’s Rest from long-term private owners the Thompson family, expanding his holdings on the NSW mid-north coast.
Occupying a huge 3.8-Ha block with direct access to the Hastings River, it provides a welcoming public bar and pool room, commercial kitchen and bistro, an expansive outdoor beer garden, and seven pub-style accommodation rooms.
Long Flat is a picturesque small town around 50 kilometres west of Port Macquarie, beside the Hastings River, on the Oxley Highway. Its primary industries are dairy and beef, and timber milling.
The pub’s landholding also provides on-site camping popular with visiting outdoor enthusiasts and families, and it has earned a strong following with locals, passing travellers and touring car and bike enthusiasts.
Flower Hotels counts a half-dozen pubs in the region, including the highly awarded flagship Settlers Inn and large-format Tacking Point Tavern, bought in partnership with the Laundy family in 2022, both in Port Macquarie.
The business reports substantially improved trade, coming largely as a result of the group’s archetypal focus on community connection and engagement, which saw the Long Flat Pub win Best Marketing Activity at the recent AHA NSW awards.
“We’ve enjoyed our time repositioning this wonderful unique pub offering and also being part of the amazing Long Flat community,” says Flower.
“We are pleased to be able to hand this over to Steve and Scott, who I have no doubt will grow and develop this iconic pub even further.”
Taking the reins for circa $2 million are new entrants to pubs, Stephen McMillan, a former architect who was an executive at Lendlease until around 2000, and Scott McMillan, who founded the ASX-listed Alliance Aviation, one of Australia’s biggest aviation services companies.
The brothers bring a familiarity with the town, their grandfather having owned the local sawmill and grandmother owner-operating the pub, in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Stephen and Scott grew up in the Port Macquarie Hastings region, going on to independently create successful businesses. Nowadays Stephen is MD of Citta Property Group, and Scott has recently stepped down from his role at Alliance.
Enamoured with its history and legacy, the McMillan brothers say they have ambition to improve the Long Flat Pub, but “to not change it”.
The discreet off-market transaction was managed by JLL Hotels’ Greg Jeloudev, who says this was an emotion-driven sale, in a competitive and supply-starved market.
“Both Stephen and Scott have genuine lineage connection to the venue, which was ultimately the key catalyst for the sale to materialise.
“It was critical to Alistair and his team that the hotel was passed to the right people, and for the right reasons.”
