Simon Paterson, centre, with his sons Ryan and Kia at the Gordon Hotel, Goulburn on Anzac Day. All three are operating the Goulburn Pub Group which is upgrading the Gordon, Southern Railway and Empire hotels in Goulburn. Photo: Paterson family.
Former Olympic, Commonwealth Games, and professional boxer Simon Paterson is whipping three historic hotels in Goulburn into shape.
Once a devastating counterpuncher, Simon has established the Goulburn Pub Group and wants to go toe-to-toe with cafes over the price of coffee.
“The coffee in this town is very expensive,” he said. “So we are opening the Southern Railway (Hotel) at 5:30 am for breakfast and full barista coffee; we’re only charging $4 for the coffee as opposed to $5, $6 even $7 I’ve seen in town.”
He is replacing roofs on the Gordon and Southern Railway hotels and making them and the Empire Hotel family friendly with children’s playgrounds.
Simon began boxing when he was 13 and became Victoria’s junior champion.
Retrenched from his building apprenticeship when he was 17, he joined the Australian Army, was a paratrooper and followed the advice of his two cousins, who were in the army too.
“They said keep it quiet (his boxing prowess), just train and when the boxing championships come up, have a crack,” he said.
“I entered the championships in 1993 and won every fight by knockout,” he said. “I think I had about four fights in one day to get to the title.”
Selected for the 1996 Australian Olympic team, he was ruled out with a shoulder injury. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the quarter finals the eventual gold medallist’s glove caught him above the eye and the fight was stopped.
The army transferred him to Sydney in 1991 where he met his wife Vanessa. Leaving the army, he returned to completing his trade and did some shifts in bars to earn extra cash.
Bruce Farthing, a world-ranked boxer in his day who became a legendary coach at the Woolloomooloo Police Boys Club was in Simon’s corner by the time he turned professional and won his debut fight, hitting his opponent flush on the jaw with a punch that buckled the man’s knees in the third round of a six-round bout.
He was on his way as a pro, chasing lucrative prize money for three years and winning enough to become an owner/operator of the Town Tavern in Blacktown.
He won the Australian cruiser weight title in 2002 and IBF regional title in 2003.
The Southern Railway Hotel is opening at 5:30 am under new management and also undergoing renovations. Photo: John Thistleton.
But as his business gathered momentum, and now having a family he hung up his gloves. “I decided I’d had enough of being punched in the head and retired (as a boxer),” he said.
“I’d had 120 amateur fights and 13 pro fights, for 10 wins,” he said. “Seven or eight of my wins were knockouts,” he said.
The Patersons owned the Town Tavern in Blacktown for 15 years and had another development site nearby, but the holding costs became too steep.
They sold their Sydney property two years ago and later bought the three Goulburn pubs from hotelier Adrian Guest who had other licensed premises in the Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains.
“Having three pubs close together was a great benefit. I have family in Goulburn; that made the transaction pretty easy really,” he said.
Being a publican is not rocket science, according to Simon. “You have to have some street smarts and common sense,” he said. “Being here and putting love back into them.”
At North Goulburn’s Gordon Hotel he has filled the under-used carpark with a children’s playground and beer garden aimed at the thousands of families living in the area. A new winter menu and wine list are taking shape.
Keeping the Southern Railway Hotel’s name, Simon is replacing its roof and will renovate inside. The upgraded beer garden will have a big screen for live sporting events and a children’s playground is planned.
He is opening the Southern Railway from 5:30 am for breakfast and discounted coffee to serve Goulburn’s large numbers of shift workers from the railway, Goulburn Jail, road maintenance workers and police.
He plans to relaunch the Empire Hotel’s bottle shop at the rear of the hotel which will also offer coffee and toasties. He plans to put a beer garden and food van in the old carpark area. The van will be called the ‘Laneway Cafe’ and serve people walking through the Ellesmere carpark to the main street.
Too small for a kitchen, the Empire instead has a good relationship with Mandy’s Chinese restaurant next door. “You can order from the pub and she brings it in, takes the plate away afterwards. It’s basically a second kitchen for her,” Simon said.
