Norman Van Den Broek (centre) with patrons at his beloved pub. Photo: Adore Residential.
In the former gold-mining town of Araluen, one lone pub stands: the Araluen Hotel.
Its very presence is a reminder of the 35-plus pubs, dozens of businesses, schools, banks and merchant stores that once stood in the town in the peak of the 1860s gold rush.
Floods, fire, the end of the gold fever and the ravages of time have slowly dismantled the town over 165 years, but for Norman Van Den Broek, this is exactly what he was looking for.
Purchasing the pub in 2014, Norman had been through a long period of introspection after a serious lifting injury, which crushed his vertebrae and ruptured a disc, impeding his ability to work.
“I soul searched for a long time; I couldn’t only not lift anymore but I couldn’t sit for long periods,” Norman says.
The injuries not fitting with the various trades he had built his working life around, he was keen to find something that would occupy his mind, when a friend suggested he would make a great publican. A notion that saw Norman embark on a new kind of search, one for the perfect country pub.
The catch was it couldn’t have stairs.
With so many Australian pubs being two storeys in the Georgian and Victorian styles, it was as if the Araluen Hotel and Norman were meant to be together.
Residing in the area once known as Redbank or East Araluen, the pub has been housed in a former general store for nearly 100 years, the original iteration, the Araluen Arms, having burnt down in 1927.
Taking on the pub, Norman found a career that he describes as suiting him perfectly.
“I’m better with my hands than my intellectual side, and that’s the perfect ingredient for a publican; you don’t have to be too smart,” Norman laughs.
Whatever Norman’s perceived lack of intelligence is, he certainly makes up for it in being a welcoming publican. On a recent visit, we got chatting, and Norman offered much more than bar banter and always had a thoughtful perspective and a warm nature.
Norman has maintained the pub, which is filled with memorabilia from the town’s history and has a row of comfy armchairs on the porch, without gentrifying it or gutting it of its historic soul, as can be the case in the race to keep up with modern times.
The Araluen Hotel, the last pub in town, will be going on the market soon. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Norman jokes that he hasn’t done a multimillion-dollar renovation because he doesn’t have a million dollars, but something tells me that even with a million dollars, the pub wouldn’t have changed too much.
“The thing was, it was like going back in time. It’s a beautiful place with a lot of beautiful people, down-to-earth people,” Norman says of his attraction to moving to Araluen.
“I literally fell in love with the place. It was well and truly out of my budget. I put my head on the chopping block, and here we are.”
Norman describes the last few years in Araluen as having been tougher than most. They came through the bushfires and COVID-19, but it’s the ongoing closures on the roads leading into Araluen and affecting the flow of passing traffic that is getting him down most of all.
“It’s hitting a little below the belt. I’m very disappointed with both councils and the government not jumping on board,” Norman says.
Despite the disappointment, Norman is tackling it head-on and lobbying the Eurobodalla Shire Council to open the road from Araluen to Moruya on the weekends.
“They are underpinning the road, but it is passable and it’s not dangerous. There is no point in closing it; I’ve been down it myself,” he says.
On the other side of town, between Braidwood and the valley, two bridges have been closed for a significant period of time, creating a detour on unsealed roads affecting the motorbike riders that frequented the pub on the weekend.
Norman feels that once the road situation is sorted, the region is on the precipice of growth and thinks businesses like general stores and cafes will come back over time, as they have in many country towns.
It’s something that, sadly, Norman may not be in town to see. With the passing of both of his parents, he will soon need to leave the valley he fell in love with and return home to Northern New South Wales to sort out family affairs. It’s a move he almost made three years ago, but with the sale falling through, he bought himself some more time in the town.
Norman is now nearly ready to put the hotel back on the market for someone else to continue the legacy of the last pub standing.
In the meantime, Norman serves generous pub food only a stone’s throw from Canberra, so you might just be able to catch him for one last drink.
The Araluen Hotel is open from Wednesday to Saturday from noon until midnight and on Sundays from noon until 10 pm.
