The indomitable Black Rhino group has stampeded into another town, taking two in legendary Coober Pedy to rack up 11 pubs in 11 months.
Approximately 900 kilometres north of Adelaide – halfway to Alice Springs – Coober Pedy is one of outback Australia’s must-dos.
Established around 1915, it is known as the ‘Opal Capital of the World’ and continues to supply the majority of the world’s gem quality opals.
It is also known for its labyrinth of underground hotels, shops and homes, built below to escape the heat, and helping put it in regular lists of the top places to visit in Australia.
Now counting a population in the region of around 4,000 residents, the past decade has brought incorporation of the local Council, sealed roads, an electricity grid, underground water and sewerage, and the establishment of schools, a hospital and sporting facilities.
One of the best-known stays in town is the Desert Cave Hotel Motel, comprising 50 motel rooms, with 19 of these underground. It provides dining and conference facilities, a pool, the underground Opal Shopping Arcade, and an underground bar café with 16 gaming machines.
The Opal Inn Hotel Motel Caravan Park provides motel rooms and a fully-powered caravan park. It is the only hotel in town that ranges full food and beverage facilities, plus a gaming room with 32 machines and permit for 40, and a drive-through bottleshop.
The two businesses report combined annual turnover north of $8.5 million.
A private family has owned the Hotels since 1967, and looked to sell them for the first time in 2019, but efforts were hampered by the pandemic and extended shutdowns.
The properties have now been taken over by Dave Tomsic’s Black Rhino, in a sale through Grant Clarke of McGees Property.
The package deal also included control of the airport, as an agency for Rex, and a contract to supply food to The Ghan passenger train.
Together the hotels give Black Rhino 60 per cent of the accommodation in town, and the group report the accommodation pulled more than $70k for their first week.
“I am really proud to be able to own something that’s got massive history,” says Tomsic, who notes he’s been waiting for assets such as these to come up for sale.
“It’s all timing!” he says.
“We’ll start renovations in the next six months.”
The Victoria-based Rhino is said to be finalising further acquisitions closer to home base, advised on its rapid expansion by CBRE Hotels’ Mathew George.
“With these recent deals the highly acquisitive and strategic Melbourne pub group has negotiated and settled 11 pubs in SA since first stepping off the plane in Adelaide in April 2021,” notes George.
