RETURN OF THE FAT LAMB

Five years after it was lost to fire, the historic Fat Lamb Hotel in Eugowra will soon phoenix, brought back to life one brick at a time.

The town of Eugowra, about four hours’ drive due west of Sydney, lost its beloved Fat Lamb early one October morning in 2012.

Fire crews responded quickly, but the old tin roof building had already succumb to the flames. The cause of the blaze was never determined.

Fifth generation Eugowran Ben Mulley has wanted to rebuild the beloved pub ever since, even making one unsuccessful attempt to buy it a few years ago.

Last year he and similarly nostalgic mates Gordon Hurry and Dan Buttriss began moves to secure the property and after eight months negotiation finally held the deeds.

Over the next six weeks the existing building will be levelled – carefully – as around 80,000 bricks will be hand-cleaned and used to rebuild the original façade.

In a form of crowd-funding, the guys have ideas to sell brick-sized pieces of local granite scribed with names, to literally become part of the structure.

There are ideas for a shearing stand, offering shearing experiences for kids, and speaking to their goal of making the place very family-oriented.

There will also be exhibition of an historic underground cellar, plenty of memorabilia, and a 9-hole Par 3 golf course out the back.

With a limited budget, the project will be a lot of hard work by stakeholders and volunteers, but the guys hope to have the business trading again in time for Christmas.

“We’ve had offers from everyone to help out with it,” Mulley told the Forbes Advocate.

“We already have the first person to be poured the very first beer … he was the person who had the last beer here.

“We’re gonna be selling beers and laughs,” Mr Mulley said.

A vote in the Advocate asking readers if they supported reopening the Fat Lamb returned: in favour – 95.38 per cent.

PubTIC was unable to make contact with the new owners prior to publication but hopes to follow the progress of the rebuild.