The storied Blue Mountains Hotel is safely in the hands of new and energetic owners and gearing up to thrive again, following a protracted sale process.
The first Blue Mountains Inn was built 1848 in what is now the town of Lawson, 90 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD. Originally known as 24 Mile Hollow, the Inn inspired the town to also adopt the Blue Mountains name, but it was later renamed again to Lawson to avoid confusion between the town and mountain range.
In the early noughties the NSW Government determined to widen the old Great Western Highway, which narrowed to just one lane each direction through Lawson. Many historic buildings were demolished, including a large part of the old Inn.
The Phillips family had owned the pub since the mid-80s, and armed with a photograph taken circa 1900 set about rebuilding it as close to the original as possible, only with fire and egress code upgrades.
Construction of the reconstruction began in 2006 and took several years. The pub offers a dining room and commercial kitchen, gaming room with five EGMs, TAB and Keno.
It also included a very generous five-bedroom manager’s residence and five well-appointed ensuited accommodation rooms.
Having rebuilt the Hotel and continued trade for another decade, the family put it to market in search of retirement to Queensland. But the process was delayed when Council ruled they wanted the 92 solar panels removed from the roof, for aesthetic reasons.
The sale process looked like breaking down over this issue, before resolution was reached allowing the new owners to keep all but eight of the panels.
Paul and Angela O’Brien took the keys in October and wasted no time getting stuck in.
“My wife Angela and I had been on the road for about 18 months looking for a pub … we’ve been far and wide, and looked at this a couple of times,” recalls Paul.
A carpenter by trade, Paul bought his first pub, the Royal Hotel in Yass, in the early 90s. Following that the couple had the O’Briens Hotel in Narooma for close to 20 years.
He says he has always bought pubs that need work, and soon the Blue Mountains had a new TAB, beer lines, and new gaming room with smoking solution. Having looked for a while he had “a lot of stuff ready to go” and “hit pretty hard and fast”.
This included bringing some former staff, welcoming Andrew ‘Wilbur’ Barling as the new manager.
Paul is living and working onsite, with Angela, who also regularly makes the five-hour drive back to Narooma to see their daughter.
The sale transaction, for an undisclosed amount, was through Manenti Quinlan’s Leonard Bongiovanni, who suggested the O’Briens have “awoken the sleeping giant” at Lawson, on the Highway opposite the station.
“It needed a forward-thinking operator who could see the true potential of the Hotel and the icon it can be,” furthered Bongiovanni.
“Paul and Angela are great operators, who will drive the business to new heights.”
Still mustering tradies and discovering more tasks to be done, Paul has traded through the ongoing works and is excited to be back at the wheel.
“We looked at this one for a while and went in with our eyes wide open, so I knew what I was getting into.
“It’s a great old-looking pub – it’s got good bones! But it’s in need of some serious love.”
