Tasmanian country pub with only petrol for 50km ready for new owner
Updated a month ago by Hamish Geale
A country pub brimming with Tasmanian character is ready for a new owner.
In Tasmania's mid north-east is the small town of Mathinna - a once-booming mining locale that now has just 130-odd inhabitants.
The town has a scattering of houses, an oval, a post office, and most notably, the Mathinna Country Club.
The pub has the only petrol bowsers for about 50 kilometres, and is the heartbeat of the town.
It has been known to pull crowds well in excess of the town's population, and has attracted some impressive musical talent - Adam Brand, James Blundell and Casey Barnes.
Best of all, there's always friendly locals waiting to meet you.
"If you drove into Mathinna when nothing was happening you'd think why the hell is there even a pub here," said leasing agent Heidi Howe, of Harcourts St Helens.
"But you walk in and there's someone there to have a chat, there's always locals at the bar.
"Then you get there on a weekend when all the bikies are around or when they have a live music event and the whole place is swarming with people, it's mega.
"You think 'how does this little town become so attractive to people' ... and it does."
The building dates back to circa 1900, and has been running as Mathinna Country Club since 1966.
For the past 12 years it has been operated by the same owner, who announced his intention to move onto his next chapter in October.
Many thanked him for putting Mathinna back on the map.
The business officially hit the market last week for $95,000 plus stock at valuation, and has since attracted a huge amount of interest.
"It's officially had the most views and likes of anything ever on our social media pages," Ms Howe said.
"It's had two genuine enquiries out of that, which for a business in a short period of time is actually a really good amount."
When new operators are found, they will inherit a lot of history.
The building, which is owned by the community, includes a pool room, a kitchen and a four-bedroom house that needs renovation.
The bar is adorned with a picture of Eric Reece - the town's famed Mathinna-born premier of the 1950s, '60s and '70s - and premiership flags and guernseys from the defunct Mathinna and Fingal football clubs.
Ms Howe suspects the business' next custodians will be a group of families.
"We're probably expecting a little bit of a consortium, maybe three families," she said.
"That's what we're finding with a lot of businesses now, it's not just one person buying in, it's two or three, they go in together and the workload is shared.
"It's one of the rare pubs that still have a family licence, so kids can come and go freely in and out of the bar.
"It's such a genuinely country pub."
