Tennant Creek Hotel renovation set to finish by end of the year

A Territory pub is set for a long overdue renovation as a veteran Tennant Creek businessmen eyes retirement. Read what’s happening.

Tennant Creek Hotel refurbishments 2025

After decades of neglect, the Tennant Creek Hotel is in the middle of an upgrade.

Owner Frank Martino said it was time for the pub he rebuilt in the 1990s to get a much-needed refurbishment.

Frank said since rebuilding the Tennant Creek Hotel after it was condemned in the 1970s, the premises has been left to decline over multiple decades and was well-and-truly in need of upgrades and a modernisation.

The to-do list includes a new roof, staff accommodation and enhancements to the facade, including new cladding.

Tennant Creek Hotel refurbishments should be completed this year.

“The hotel has been without due maintenance for many years and because I have to renew the lease, I want to fix the things that have been left undone over the years,” Frank said. “They need to be repaired and fixed and they need a facelift.

“We need new staff accommodation, we need to have a facade and we need fresh roofing. We’re not building anything that’s new, we’re just refurbishing what was already there before, including the much-loved Jackson Bar.”

Adelaide based since leaving the Territory in the mid-1990s Frank’s company, Australian Portable Camps, now employs about 350 people at Monarto in South Australia and various other operating places.

Tennant Creek Hotel owner Frank Martino.

Like his father before him, Frank started his own catering business servicing mines all over Australia after the Martino family settled in Tennant Creek in the late 1960s.

Despite the surge in mining activity in the Barkly in recent years and the opening last month of Tennant Mines’ rejuvenated Nobles Nob gold processing facility, Frank said the reasons behind the hotel upgrade were far closer to home.

“I don’t know anything about the new goldmine,” Frank said. “I’ve been in Tennant Creek since 1968. Mines come and go.

“I’m doing things because I want to do them and because I’m getting old and want to transfer to my grandson, Frankie. I don’t want to transfer to him something that’s not maintained or done properly I want it to last another 30, or 40 years.”

Tennant Creek Hotel is under renovation.

Works are being done by Frank’s company with no set time-frame or budget.

“We don’t have any budget and we’re doing it with my people from my company,” he said. “They’re on annual leave at the moment but should be back within next couple week, and we’ll keep moving until they finish.

“They’ll probably take another six months, but we’re not in a rush. We want to do things properly and safely and to bring the hotel back to its former glory.

“I rebuilt the hotel in the ‘90s after it was condemned.

“I put all the stone around it and all the checks and balances and once the renovation was finished it was best hotel in the Territory. I left Tenant Creek and left the Territory and nothing has been done since.

“I want to do it, do it properly and transfer to my grandson, Frank Martino. From one Frank to another.”

Originally published as Tennant Creek Hotel renovation set to finish by end of the year