Kilkivan Hotel-Motel owners Fred and Sandi Brophy sell pub to John and Karen Panetta

The new owners of an iconic Gympie region hotel have traded in their old business at Glen Echo to realise their dream of running a pub. VIDEO.

The Kilkivan Hotel-Motel has been bought by former Glen Echo Dirt Bike and Camping Park owners John and Karen Panetta.

Mr and Mrs Panetta moved from Glen Echo to Kilkivan when they sold the dirt bike and camping park in April and officially took over the pub on Tuesday.

Mr Panetta said the hotel was the family’s local watering hole whenever they visited Kilkivan, so they jumped at the chance to run the iconic business when it was put up for sale.

“I’ve always dreamt of (owning) a pub. I love the hospitality side and love a chat with people,” he told the Gympie Times

“I suppose there’s been some level of hospitality (working at the Glen Echo Dirt Bike and Camping Park) and we’re very familiar with the locals.

“We thought it was a good transition.”

Despite having only owned the pub for less than three days, Mr Panetta said his favourite thing about being a pub owner was the locals.

“I just enjoy the fellas that come in and have a beer, especially the ones that come in earlier,” he said.

The family has no plans to change the aesthetic of the old Queenslander building, and instead wants to carry on the legacy left by former owners Fred and Sandi Brophy.

Earlier this week the Gympie Times reported Mr Brophy, best known as the man behind Fred Brophy’s Boxing Troupe, and his wife bought the pub in 2007.

The couple also owned the Cracow Hotel in Central Queensland where the famous travelling boxing troupe began, but sold it in 2021.

The idea to buy the Kilkivan pub was sparked while travelling from Cracow to Brisbane to visit their children, Mr Brophy told the Gympie Times.

The iconic Queenslander building appealed the couple who vowed to maintain the existing aesthetic rather than modernise.

“We used to pass it all the time … We thought ‘that’s a good, fair dinkum old Queensland club’,” Mr Brophy said.

“Queensland pubs were good ol’ pubs.”

But now, Mr and Mrs Brophy said the time had come to move on from the hospitality sector and focus on travelling and spending time with their grandchildren.

They officially handed the reigns to new owner Johnny Panetta on Tuesday, June 14.

“It’s pretty hard to run two pubs and a boxing tent when you want to see all your grandkids,” he said.

“We said ‘the time’s the time (sic), we’ll move on’.”

The Fred Brophy Boxing Troupe is not stopping any time soon.

“We’ve turned (The Kilkivan Hotel) into a great Queensland pub, we love it, we love all the people that come to it.

“If it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t be the pub it is.”