Lees Hotel: Waymark Hotels buys famed hotel with no beer in Ingham
A North Queensland pub famed as the hotel with no beer – and more recently no food – is serving up lashings of both after a multi-million dollar makeover.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A North Queensland pub famed in poem and song as the hotel with no beer – and more recently as the pub with no food – is now serving up generous lashings of both after a multi-million dollar makeover.
Lees Hotel hosted a relaunch party in Ingham on Friday to officially celebrate its purchase by Brisbane-based hospitality business Waymark Hotels and the opening of its new Bistro that offered an array of bang-up Australian fare.
“We’ve been the pub with no food for the last 16 months, so we’ve finally got food in here as well,” Waymark Hotels regional manager Trent Farrell said.
“It’s a beautiful, brand-spanking new kitchen, everything’s the latest and whiz-bang in there and it’s great to bring that to the market in Ingham.”
Mr Farrell said Waymark was a privately owned boutique business.
Mr Farrel said that Lees Hotel was in the centre of town and “it’s got a lot of natural history”.
“It’s got a wealth of opportunity in relation to the property and the community and we think we can do things a little bit differently and a little bit better and have more of an impact with the community than the current competition.”
Lees Hotel shot to stardom with the release of Slim Dusty’s ‘A Pub with No Beer’, based on the poem by local poet Dan Sheahan.
Mr Farrel said the multi-million dollar acquisition and redevelopment had a “long way to go”, including a planned remodelling of the façade to “give a nod to hits heritage”.
He said Waymark was focused on “community and families, food and drink”.
More Coverage
Originally published as Lees Hotel: Waymark Hotels buys famed hotel with no beer in Ingham
‘Grotesque and cowardly’: Man’s 643 vile calls from inside cell
A Townsville judge has blasted a man with a history of violence for making a series of “vile” phone calls in which he threatened to kill a woman and insulted her intelligence, noting he has never held a job.
Cyclone with potential to hit Qld expected to be named today
A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to intensify into a Category 3 cyclone within days, bringing the potential for strong winds and high tides along Queensland’s east coast. However, its exact path remains uncertain.