The unique and enigmatic Captain’s Flat Hotel – home of the loooong bar – is hosting a rocking three-day festival of live music in support of the Fire Service.
Captain’s Flat, and its only Hotel, are to be found around three and a half hours’ drive south-south-west of Sydney, or an hour south-east of Canberra.
The town was home to a succession of mining booms starting in the mid-1800s, producing gold, lead, copper, zinc and silver until the 1960s.
In 1937 the handsome Captain’s Flat Hotel (CFH) opened, embodying the best of the period’s iconic Art Deco styling, with 21 accommodation rooms and what was the longest bar in the southern hemisphere, documented at 32.2 metres. Built “like a brick shithouse” it is the last survivor of five hotels that were once in the town.
In 2015 a posse of investors including Charlie Micallef, a former maintenance manager for an international chain hotel, banded together and bought the Hotel, having fallen for its grandeur. Finding it difficult to manage remotely from Sydney, it was leased, currently to licensee Mercedes Torres.
At some point in its life the record-setting bar was shortened to a more manageable 23 metres, which keeps it as one of the longest in the country, but the Captain still has other unique qualities.
“It’s the only pub I know where you can hang schooners in the corners,” offers Micallef.
“Very strange, but true. I didn’t believe it myself, ‘til I had five suspended in one corner, one on top of another, and they stayed there, overnight.”
In a town Micallef describes as a cross between decaying industry and Mad Max, new technology has brought new life to old sites and fresh digging in the area.
The Captain has seen extensive capex, now sporting 15 beer lines, greater refrigeration, courtesy buses, and a wine club. The assembly of accommodation rooms are being rejuvenated for the returning miners, with the offer of a packed ‘crib’ lunch provided.
“It’s a good little community, and the pub’s the town, as such,” Micallef poses. “If a bloke’s had a hard day’s work, he can come in with his cap on and his high-vis and his shorts, and he can have a cold beer and have a yarn and go home happy.”
The Hotel already raises money for a number of local worthy causes, and typically steps up when a crisis is in the air.
Crippling drought across the eastern seaboard sees the Captain’s attentions turn from farmer relief to bushfires, and from Friday 20 December to Sunday 22 December it is hosting a huge fundraiser in support of the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Up to dozen bands will be performing live, including Jeff Lang, with adult general admission at $39.
Tickets available HERE through Moshtix.
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For the full feature article on the Captain’s Flat Hotel, see the December edition of PubTIC Magazine.
