Jackson Macdonald expands pub empire with Grand Hotel Goomeri purchase

Farmer and businessman Jackson Macdonald is just 47, but has just added an impressive new asset to his portfolio of country pubs.

The Grand is the fourth hotel Jackson Macdonald has acquired in the last four and half years, the historic Theebine Hotel being his first venture into the pub business. Source: Facebook

Grazier and businessman Jackson Macdonald has added another impressive asset to his portfolio of country pubs with the recent purchase of the historic Grand Hotel Goomeri.

The purchase follows his other acquisitions of the past four and a half years: the Theebine Hotel in October 2020 for $800,000, the Royal Hotel in Tiaro in 2021 for $1.1 million and the Commercial Hotel in Biggenden in 2022 for $325,000.

The Theebine Hotel, originally called the Kilkivan Junction Hotel, had been in the hands of Claudia Kroenert and Ron Yemoens for the previous 15 years.

First opened in 1909, the 116-year-old Theebine pub serviced the busy railway station across the road that brought people and freight up to Wondai and Proston or on to Maryborough and beyond.

Jackson Macdonald, grazier and owner of four pubs in the Wide Bay and Burnett, has purchased The Grand Hotel Goomeri. Source: Facebook

Other than expanding the deck and rebuilding the cookhouse that was destroyed by termites, the building was still in its original state.

A long-time Theebine resident, Mr Macdonald said he got into the pub game to keep the Theebine Hotel in local hands, and to stop “foreign interests” from buying it.

“At the end of the day, we’re all about locals,” said the 47-year-old, who is also a talented piano player.

Mr Macdonald bought Joe’s Grand Hotel Goomeri from embattled former owner and Burnett businessman Joe Prendergast, who is facing multiple serious criminal charges.

The keys officially change hands on April 7, 2025, after a process Mr Macdonald said had taken about two years.

Jackson Macdonald (far left) took over ownership of the Theebine Hotel in 2020. Pictured with Claudia Kroenert, Ashleigh Jensen, and Ron Yemoens.

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Mr Macdonald said his plans included putting local wines on the Grand’s new menu and using as much local produce and as many local businesses as possible.

The new menu will be similar to the menu at the Theebine, which he described as “just a classic pub menu”.

It will include cheaper meals around $10 to $15 and some more expensive options, as well as a rotating specials board.

“They will always have some fancy options, over and above the pub menu, and then some real cheap options so that at least there’s an affordable option for everybody,” he said.

“That’s the way we like to run our menu.”

While the hotel will be under new management, Mr Macdonald said he hopes to retain as many of the existing staff as possible.

“We would love to retain all the staff, to tell the truth,” he said.

“In an ideal world, we would like to retain all the staff.”

The business is also currently recruiting for staff.

While backpackers serving drinks and punters at the pokies seem to go hand-in-hand with the classic Aussie pub, these are two things you won’t see at The Grand.

Mr Macdonald said he had never employed a backpacker in any of his hotels and would not be installing poker machines at his new hotel.

“There will never be pokies, as long as I own it,” he said.

“I can’t stand them.”

The Grand Hotel was previously called Joe’s Grand Hotel Goomeri and was owned by Joe Prendergast. Source: Tanya Easterby / The Gympie Times

Commenters took to social media to throw their support behind the new ownership and to praise the “great things” Mr Macdonald and his team had done with the Theebine pub.

“The Theebine is epic,” one commenter said.

“Best news of the century,” another commenter said.

“Look forward to a real publican that cares about local clientele.

“Bring back that true country pub feel.”

“We are very excited to come back to the Goomeri under NEW management,” another person posted to social media.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been back.”

Once the keys change hands, the pub will close to prepare for the new management to take over.

There will be no official grand opening; the hotel will simply be back to business and open to the public from 10am on April 8, serving lunch and dinner seven days a week.

The remains of the Grand Hotel after the 1939 fire which claimed eight lives. The Boonara Hotel across the road survived but later burnt down in 1947.

TRAGIC AND SPOOKY HISTORY OF THE GRAND

The iconic art deco style hotel we know today was rebuilt in 1943 after the original wooden building was destroyed in a 1939 fire that claimed eight lives.

Newspaper reports at the time said the hotel was “ablaze from end to end in a few minutes”.

Police attributed the significant number of lives lost to the location where they believed the fire first started, which cut off direct access to the fire escape from the top floor, and to blinds between the veranda and fire escape being nailed down.

The fire also claimed the post office and a wooden building next to the Grand, separated by a laneway.

While the tragedy happened over 85 years ago and the structure was rebuilt, the hotel has gained a reputation for spooky activity being experienced within its walls.

This includes seeing figures disappear into rooms, a barmaid in the ladies toilets who shouted at visitors to “get out”, smoke alarms going off for no apparent reason, and a woman smoking in a doorway.

Multiple people have reported feeling like someone is touching them, only to turn around and find no one there.

In 2020, long-time hotel cleaner Sally Detlefson said she had first-hand experience with the hotel’s ghostly visitors.

“I was walking upstairs one time and I felt somebody was beside me, and someone tapped me three times on the shoulder,” she said.

“Normally I can hear someone walking beside me, but there was no-one.”

Originally published as Jackson Macdonald expands pub empire with Grand Hotel Goomeri purchase