Queensland regional pubs are doing it tough amid rising costs for transport and utilities, with two stories of planned revival resulting in recent closure.
Wendy and Bruce McFarlane own and operate the Royal Hotel at Rubyvale in Queensland’s gem fields, around 900 km north-west of Brisbane. They also own the Anakie Gemfields Hotel Motel, 16 kilometres away in the town of Anakie.
The Anakie pub was once central to the thriving town, officially declared a mining hotspot soon after Federation in the early 1900s.
While it has survived as the only public house in the tight-knit community of around 700 people, the McFarlanes have found it increasingly difficult to run it under management with the rising costs of pub operation, particularly haulage to the remote town and spiralling electricity bills.
Poor mobile phone coverage has further hindered chances of attracting tourists and travellers.
Where an owner-operator may be viable, they cannot be in both places at once, and made the very reluctant decision this month to close the doors. Wendy McFarlane told CQ News it was “not an easy decision”.
The closure will leave a hole in the town, with residents forced to travel to Sapphire or Rubyvale, or 45 kilometres to Emerald to go to a pub.
The couple continue operations at their Royal Hotel, and hope to find a solution at Anakie coming into summer.
Six-hundred kilometres east, Federal Court has issued wind-up orders on the operators of the Grand Hotel Bundaberg, Tomik Pty Ltd. The pub was yet to reopen from a major renovation that saw it close for business mid-2017.
The action came from an application by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, regarding more than $1 million owing to the Australian Tax Office.
Pilot Partners have been appointed liquidators, and a meeting has been called for creditors.
Pilot Partners were unable to provide further information on the pub’s future at this time.
