[The Canberra Times Wednesday 31 March 1976]

OLD PUB TO HELP BURY ITS PAST

The contractor reshaping and covering the mine dumps above Captains Flat, Cleary Brothers Pty Ltd, has bought the Captains Flat Hotel to house 30 employees.

Mr Dennis Cleary said yesterday that the hotel had been bought from Tooth and Company Ltd for a sum which he did not wish to disclose.

As part of their union award the men receive free accommodation and meals at the hotel. Two girls are employed as housekeepers and four people now working the kitchens.

Mr Cleary said new redcarpet had been put in the bars and the painters had been brought in to redecorate. So far, the ceiling had been painted.

He said he had been told that during its heyday the pub — one of whose bars is about 32 metres long — sold a peak of 102 36-gallon barrels of beer in one week.

When Cleary Brothers bought the hotel about six weeks ago, it was selling about five 18-gallon kegs a week.

“It’s up around about 15 18-gallon kegs now”, he said.

Only two of the pub‘s four bars are operating now— not including the 32 metre one — and television sets have been installed.

Having served the men who helped work the mines and build the lime heaps since 1938 when it was built, the Captains Flat Hotel is now serving the men who are to bury the traces of the mining.

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Categories: NSW hotels