IT’S been 30 weeks now, and Belinda Smith is still moving at high speed.
Around her, the venerable Bush Inn is being transformed into a fusion of the old pub character with the services and options a hotel customer now expects.
Think of it as a 200-year leap into the future.
At the bar, you’ll see not just one or two beers, but multiple imports, too. Above are shelves of liqueurs, scotches and vodkas that were unknown a year ago.
The 30-something-year-old licensee of New Norfolk’s famous pub is making her mark. On the outside, it’s evident in the framework of scaffolding now enclosing much of the building fabric.
And that’s just for the exterior painting being done by Chris Jordan and his team. Inside, the guts of the building and its sprawl of old-style hotel rooms are undergoing a huge change.
It’s a refurbishing that will likely top a million dollars.
When all’s done and dusted, the 19 hotel rooms of the old Bush Inn, circa 1815, will become 14 contemporary suites. And with that, Australia’s longest continuously licensed premises will have moved into a new age.
Work commissioned by Belinda Smith over the past seven months has already brought a new life to the old place.
It’s not just appearances – an updated dining room and bar areas, fresh carpets, walls and floors – but a new attitude.
Even the much-loved river-view deck is getting new furniture.
“What’s out there is functional, but it’s time for something new, something a bit more welcoming,” she tells me.
Increased customer numbers also reflect a jump in the number of music gigs being staged on that deck, 150 different gigs and counting.
What gives her confidence about the investment and the future is the response already being rendered by the Valley community.
The Bush is now serving 1000 meals a week, a good headline for any pub.
“Those numbers tell us we’ve made some smart choices,” she says, pointing to an Open Table booking system, which automates the way a customer checks to see if a table is available.
The meals are receiving complimentary comparisons with Hobart’s Rockwall restaurant. The steaks, by the way, remain hugely popular.
Such is the workload that staff numbers are triple what they were last year. Sales are up across the board.
The next piece of the puzzle that is the financial underpinnings of a modern pub is the accommodation side of the business.
“This place has been stuck in its 1815 groove for a very long time,” says the boss.
But that part of the business is changing, and fast.
It will be May 2024, when the current flurry of building activity is complete, Mr. Jordan and his brushes and scrapers have gone, and the first guests ensconced in those old-but-new rooms.
“Yes, it looks like the whole thing will be north of a million,” she consider.
“But at this point, we need to keep going.
“The way I look at it … we’ve taken a bite, and now we’ve got to keep chewing!”