Local mining identity Dale McNamara is parting with his painstakingly restored Morpeth pub, the River Royal Inn, having breathed life back into the drowned historic building.
A ‘super storm’ in early 2015 brought a wall of water crashing through the back of the 1827-built pub in Morpeth, just east of Maitland.
The massive repair bill McNamara faced on the old sandstone-footing structure saw him put it to market, and word around town was it would be torn down to become a block of apartments.
But a growing chorus of pleas by locals, coupled with his own memories of drinking at the pub with an old mate, saw him pull it from the market on auction day and vow to save it.
“When it closed, I had a lot of phone calls and everywhere I went I was approached by people saying ‘I hope you bring our hotel back’,” recalls McNamara. “At the end of the day, probably no-one else would have brought it back to being a hotel.”
Over the next 12 months he and a dedicated builder undertook the painstaking task of restoring the soggy building, on the way unearthing treasures indicating its vintage, including pristine pages from an 1880 copy of the Daily Telegraph behind the big 1.5-metre square mirror above the fireplace.
The news pages and many more photos and items of historical significance are now mounted throughout the pub, offering patrons a walk back in time in the old town.
Morpeth was once littered with licensed venues, and instrumental in the Hunter Valley becoming the tourist playground that it has. The Maitland region is undergoing rapid growth and in need of more hospitality and accommodation.
McNamara has spent most of his career in the mining business, currently Global Director, Mining of PPK Group. He also owns several other hotels, with his son and the family operating two of them.
Admitting you can “only do so much” he has listed the freehold going concern with Ray White Hotels’ Xavier Plunkett, hoping someone will carry on the legacy.
“I’ve given the town back its pub, and I’m hoping someone will go on with it,” he says. “I’d like to see it go to a good owner-operator. They’ll do really well, and they’ll really enjoy the hotel.”
Located on 1,442sqm, the River Royal comprises a public bar, bistro, alfresco beer garden, and 10 pub-style accommodation rooms.
“The hotel would definitely suit an owner-operator model – particularly someone with a food and beverage background,” agreed Plunkett. “Additionally, the ten rooms upstairs provide a great opportunity for a bed and breakfast-type operation, in a strong accommodation town.”
