"Have The Confidence To Grab That Opportunity”
It began when I went to visit my daughter, Kate. She was living in regional NSW and we drove down to the little township of Jugiong, 90 minutes from Canberra, to have a coffee. We parked in front of the shuttered pub, The Sir George, a stone building that was falling apart, and just wandered around talking about the fun we could have restoring it. We were just joking around, but two months later Kate rang me and said, “Guess what, Mum? There’s a For Sale sign on the pub.” I tendered for it and became the first new owner in 170 years.
I hadn’t planned to move across the country. I had spent my entire life in Western Australia and never thought about leaving. I wasn’t sick of Perth at all – it was just that an opportunity arose that seemed exciting. I wanted to feel the fear and do it anyway.
I got married at 21 and had a child at 23. I went straight from living with my parents to living with my husband. When I was 40 my husband and I moved from our farm to Perth where I opened a homewares store and started a landscape design business. I was learning about my own capabilities.
When I left my husband in my 50s, it was the first time in my life that I was totally independent. I got a chance to do all the things I probably should have done when I was younger, including travelling to Europe two summers in a row on my own.
In your 40s you are still dealing with all sorts of stuff, your head is going in a million different ways. In my 50s I felt really able to make my own way without seeking the advice or approval of anyone else.
For the pub renovation I carefully planned the financials. I had to borrow money but I made sure that if it all went to pot, I wasn’t risking my other assets. I did the work in stages and tried not to overcapitalise; I wanted to be sure that, if I had to sell it, it was still a saleable asset.
I decided to drive across the Nullarbor instead of getting on a plane. I wanted that space between my old life and my new life and it turned out to be the most liberating five days of my life. I’ll never forget it. I wanted to be on the open road – it was an almost physical feeling, the sense of one door closing behind me and new things opening ahead of me.
I was very hands-on during the renovation, and had so much fun. I was in there every day ripping and stripping and tearing, and so was my daughter, who has now invested in the business. We stripped the painting back to its basic shell, we planted trees, we did it all. I went to Canberra Bunnings so often – I never had time to go the National Gallery or the War Memorial, but boy do I know that Bunnings well.
“Being busy kept me from being lonely. However, there was one day when I was sitting on the front verandah and I looked up and down the main street and there was nothing. At that moment I thought, ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’”
Being busy kept me from being lonely. However, there was one day when I was sitting on the front verandah, filthy after a long day of work. I looked up and down the main street and there was nothing – I could almost see tumbleweeds rolling around. That was the one moment when I thought, “Oh my god, what have I done?”
After leaving my marriage I was seeing someone but it was a fairly loose arrangement – I had no desire to settle down with anyone. When I bought the pub I said to him, “Let’s see if we miss each other”. He ended up coming over here after about six months and he’s been an amazing help with the business. He’s always been in hospitality, and he’s been a big part of our success.
The pub was successful from the start. We have a really great location – 90 minutes from Canberra, 90 minutes from Wagga, right off the highway. There are lot of people passing who stop for good food and coffee plus a lot of customers from farming families who moved to the city for their careers and are now back on the land and appreciate a place with an amazing ambience.
After opening the pub, we moved on to the accommodation. We were lucky that there was so much land to play with – we were able to put in a huge garden and accommodation behind that. I put three rooms into the old stables and built eight other barns made of black wood – it’s a Danish noir look. Black is so dramatic and it provides a great backdrop to the gardens: green looks so beautiful on black. We had great fun with the garden, creating separate “rooms” so you can’t see the garden all at once.
Despite COVID, the rooms have been busier than ever and the turnover of the pub is up on last year. We are still growing and changing all the time. We’re starting to create programs for our visitors: walks, drives, wineries they can visit in the area. There is always something to do.
This feels like the culmination of my life journey. Everything I’ve learnt over the last 30 years – the knowledge that I’ve gained in design, in travel, in food – I’ve been able to apply to this project.
Life is an amazing journey. There are times when you get stuck along the way, but something turns up. You have to have the confidence to grab that opportunity.
Interview with Liz Prater by Ute Junker
Photos_ Supplied