Many thirsty Captains Flat residents are cheering the purchase of their long-closed pub – the 1937 Captains Flat Hotel – which has been bought for $1 million by Captains Flat-born Sharanne Witt. The opening date couldn’t come soon enough (the pub closed in July 2023 after a short five-month opening) but will re-open by 30th June this year.
Locals will be relieved to know that their beloved pub will stay in the family – Sharanne’s mother and nan both lived in the pub (her nan was the cook) and her grandparents owned the butcher shop across the road.
So it is fitting that the soon-to-be-opened pub will honour her grandparents with “Molly’s café and cocktails” and “Peggy’s Bistro”. There are also plans for a future distillery out the back as well as an enclosed wedding reception venue.
“I’m excited and scared,” Sharanne said. “It was very spur of the moment, I thought oh my god what have I done? I’d just retired.”
Sharanne’s daughter Kaitlin Gilbert (who also happens to be an army major) has purchased 5 per cent of the pub and is overseeing the staff recruiting. All new bar and restaurant staff are from Captains Flat however they’ve had to recruit a chef from Canberra.
The plan is for a soft opening on the 22nd June and a full opening on the 29th June.
“We just want to run it as a really country local pub, a destination pub,” Sharanne said. “You go to a country pub for the characters. We’re keeping all of the old fridges, so we’re trying to work out the logistics of not changing anything.
“They call it the town that never dies, it was slowly dying. The heart and soul is the pub. If we can get the heart and soul pumping again, we’ll be up and running.”
Captains Flat Hotel was once famous for having the longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere (36 metres). This was due to the 3,500 parched miners who would come in for a beer after work (the mine operated from the late 1880s and closed in the 1960s).
Locals have been hankering for a beer for four long years, getting their hopes dashed when the pub failed to sell at auction in December 2023.
Long-term Captains Flat resident, 50-year-old Jason Platt, said there had been “a big hole in the place to be honest”.
“They’ve still got the bowling club but it’s just a shame to see everything closing down out there, there’s not much left,” Jason said. “It’s good to see the pub’s opening. I’ve lived here since I was 14, I’ve just watched so much stuff disappear from what it used to be. To sit around and have a cold one with the boys, it’ll be great.”
The pub sits on more than 2,000 square metres and includes a beer garden, sitting rooms and dining area and 21 guest rooms.
Captains Flat Hotel is on Facebook.
