Grong Grong makes last stand by buying the local pub

When the local pub was on the chopping block, the NSW village of Grong Grong – population 150 – bought it to save the community.

Grong Grong farmer Adam Ferguson was one of many locals who pitched in to save their Royal Hotel. Picture: Gary Ramage

They fought tooth and nail to save their little primary school, and lost. And then the pub was on the chopping block. For the NSW village of Grong Grong – population 150 – it became the last stand: save the pub or abandon all hope of saving the community.

“No one wants to have a boarded-up town, a forgotten town,” says Gemma Purcell, who lives with her husband on their farm in the NSW Riverina, not far from the village. “We realised that we couldn’t just stand around and wait to be rescued.”

And so they rescued themselves.

They’ve become part of a growing movement from Bolgart in Western Australia to Pallmallawa and North Star in NSW, Yangan in Queensland, Sealake in Victoria and many other places in ­between where locals have pitched in to save their pub in an effort to shore up their community.

In doing so, they’ve transformed decrepit old workingman’s pubs, establishments that hadn’t had money spent on them in decades, into places where families now feel welcome.

In Grong Grong, just off the Newell Highway and 76km northwest of Wagga Wagga, the community swung into action last year when it looked as though its historic 1875 Royal Hotel might close. A young family bought the pub early in 2020, but with Covid the timing was terrible. They toughed it out for 18 months before putting it up for sale in the hope of finding a buyer. If they couldn’t, the pub would be abandoned.

“We called a community meeting and asked what the town would be like if the pub closed its doors,” Purcell says. “We were at a crossroads and as a community we thrashed it out.”

They decided that they’d collectively buy the pub. A committee was set up to investigate the possibilities, the legalities and the structures required to do that. They landed on a unit trust for ownership, and a company to act as the trustee for governance. And then they put the word out to investors.

They were overwhelmed by the response: 169 people, mostly locals, but also others who just liked the idea and had a connection to Grong Grong, paid a minimum of $5000 to buy shares. They raised more than $1m.

Mark Dixon, 60, Gary Powell, 69, and Peter Royale, 97, have a beer at the Grong Grong pub. Picture: Gary Ramage

It was an incredible response, especially considering the sales pitch. Adam Ferguson, another local farmer involved in the project, says: “Everyone I spoke to about putting money in. I said, ‘It’s not a donation, but don’t ever expect to make any money out of this’.”

He’s heard not a grumble from any of the investors. In fact, many of them turned up to the many working bees held to clean up the joint.

Others have donated equipment, supplies and materials and thousands of hours of free labour in the rebuilding and in administration. “My excavator was in there for weeks while they were digging the new septic,” Ferguson says.

Purcell says the money they’ve raised has “allowed us to do about 50 years of maintenance that needed to be done – rewiring, new roof, painting, new flooring, refurbishing the residence, new bar, new commercial kitchen”.

There’s now enormous pride from the locals in their pub.

“It has injected a huge amount of confidence in the community,” she says.

“I think people felt empowered that they could achieve something like this rather than having this ongoing narrative of inevitable rural decline. We changed that narrative and that felt really good for everyone.”

A number of other communities from around Australia have contacted them with hopes of saving their own pubs. You are trendsetters, she is told. “Ha,” she replies. “Thirsty trendsetters … we really just didn’t want to see it closed. The whole community felt really strongly about it and so we did something about it.”