The "heart and soul" of Captains Flat has a new owner who plans to keep the hotel an "iconic" Aussie pub.
Sharanne Witt is taking over the reins of the Captains Flat Hotel, which opened originally in 1938 used to have the longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere.
Ms Witt fell in love with the pub from the first time she saw it.
"I'm really excited to just get it up and running and have another iconic local pub open in country NSW," she said.
She paid $1 million for the hotel, which failed to sell at auction last year.
Kate, Ms Witt's daughter, had a lifelong dream of owning the pub so when it came up for sale they were determined to buy it.
"She said, 'Mum, Mum, let's have a look at it'," Sharanne Witt said.
"So I rang Tracey [the previous owner] and gave her my story and she went, 'Oh, my goodness, it's meant to be'."
Kate will be coming down to help with her young family on weekends, Ms Witt said.
Iconic country charm to stay
The hotel was previously owned by Tracey and Greg Durr, who bought the place in 2022 to "bring the old lady back to life". While they ran it as a pub for a few months, it hasn't been trading since August 2023.
The iconic Australiana charm is the best part of the hotel, Ms Witt said, describing the institution as the "heart and soul" of the community.
She wanted to keep the "grand old lady" as an iconic country pub.
"We don't want to turn it into a Sydney yuppie pub," she said.
"Keeping it as authentic as we can, that's the plan."
Full circle for Ms Witt's family
Captains Flat also has a deep family connection for Ms Witt; she was born in the town and her mum and grandparents lived there for years.
"My grandmother was a chef here, I think, in the late '50s, and my mum lived here [in the pub], up the stairs," she said.
"I never feel out of place."
Her grandparents owned a piggery and a butcher shop in town. Her parents even met in Captains Flat.
And while her family left the town soon after she was born, she's no stranger to the locals.
She was instantly recognised when she visited the pub two decades ago, Ms Witt said.
"We walked in and this guy goes, 'You'd have to be bloody Molly Pugh's daughter'," she said.
"And I said, 'I'm bloody Molly Pugh's granddaughter'. And he goes, 'You bloody gotta be'!"
The locals, meanwhile, are keen to get back in the pub. Ms Witt said half the town had friended her on Facebook, and she'd received countless messages of support.
"They'd like to have their old watering hole back up and running," she said.
Captains Flat Hotel will reopen at the end of June.
