Hotel Binalong is on the market for the first time since 1970, attached with a price guide of $2.9 million. Photo: Visit Yass Valley.
It’s been an important meeting place for locals, a timely stopping point for passers-by and even a vaccination hub in recent times. Hotel Binalong has officially hit the market with a staggering $2.9 million price guide.
Described as the quintessential Australian country pub built in 1922, Hotel Binalong was the village’s fourth pub but the only one that remains in business today. It’s been more than 50 years since the hotel last changed hands, having been owned by the same family since 1970.
With three gaming machines holding an estimated value of $1.2 million and on 5590 sqm of land with subdivision potential, the pub is 95 km away from Canberra and 311 km from Sydney. Sellers believe the pub can become the next Hume Highway destination.
Ian Paterson, whose wife Julie’s family have owned the pub, said that the pair are looking to retire soon and believed the time was right to look for a sale. Being the only hotel in Binalong, it made it quite hard to know what price they should be seeking.
The pub has an esteemed history. Julie’s dad ‘Dutchy’ has become quite famous regionally throughout his time running the pub and has even had a song written about him.
Nick Tinning, a hotel broker from Chris Tinning & Co, has been tasked with selling the beloved pub. He said this celebration of history and high-level upkeep courtesy of its current owners makes Hotel Binalong a potentially unique acquisition.
“It’s a bit like walking into a time warp. The timber work is there, the tile work is there, the old brewery posters are there and yet when I look behind the scenes and I look at the kitchen and the cellar, it’s all modern and exactly what you would expect,” Mr Tinning said.
“A lot of hotels have been renovated and done up, but modernised and in doing so they make the inside very ‘club-like’. This hotel still has all its character.”
Walking in for a beer at Hotel Binalong is like ‘stepping into a time-warp’, according to hotel broker Nick Tinning. Photo: Visit Yass Valley.
Mr Tinning likened the opportunity to the Sir George in Jugiong, identifying both the regional positioning of Binalong along the major roads and the potential for developing a more extensive beer garden.
“It could become a destination hotel quite easily. It has all the features that people go looking for when they want a classic country pub,” he said.
“The land area flows all the way back to the creek behind it and goes around to the side street frontage. There is a possibility of creating an area for camping or just enlarging that whole beer garden area.”
Hotel broker Nick Tinning said the beer garden presents a significant opportunity for business growth. Photo: Visit Yass Valley.
Still, in the early stages of its release to the market, the pub has generated interest from far and wide.
“We’ve had existing hoteliers looking at it currently and saying, I could go and purchase this, invest some money into it, have a management technique where I do turn it into that destination hotel and then I have other first-timers looking to create their own Sir George with their own ideas,” Mr Tinning said.
The agent used the success of the nearby Motel Royal Tara as evidence that “Binalong is already on the map” and argued that it just needs a little push to propel it to a whole other level.
“The reason they care about it is that it just strikes something in the memory. You walk in and you think, ‘here is that classic old pub’,” Mr Tinning said.
“You’ve got Banjo Paterson’s birthplace. You’ve got Johnny Gilbert the bushranger’s grave. They’re all things that link us to Australia and our past.”
Mr Tinning said that if a buyer called tomorrow and said they were willing to pay $2.9 million and the vendor agreed, then the pub could be theirs. They are not waiting for a certain period for the public to express interest.
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