Pub rebuild whets the whistle
IT HAS been one year since the tiny town of Muckadilla lost its historic watering hole to an inferno.
It only took two days for longtime patrons Christy and Marty Coomber to decide to buy the ruins and commit to rebuilding the iconic southwest pub.
The pair lives on a property 20km away and vividly remembers August 8, 2019, like it was yesterday.
“Marty was on his way to fix a trough and he had to go past the pub to get there and on the way, he saw the house next door on fire,” Mrs Coomber said.
“He rang me from the pub, but by the time I had got down there, 20 minutes had passed, and it was all over, red rover.”
Known by locals as “Mucka”, the new build will be the fourth to stand in its place, with its three predecessors falling victim to fires.
The couple bought the pub from John and Sue McIntosh in January and spent the past seven months redesigning the new pub.
“Our look for the new pub is an old-style country pub with a nice wide veranda where you can look into the pool and watch the trucks go past,” she said.
“I hope the truckies will stop in and have a feed and drink with us.
“I hope all the surrounding families come in and residents from Roma and Mitchell also socialise with us after all this horrible COVID stuff is over.
“We just hope it’s a nice, central, country meeting point for everyone where you can have a relaxed, nice meal and everyone can get together, especially for the farmers during a time like this where they would be wanting to have that meeting point and talk about their crops, sheep and everything.”
The rebuild has been delayed a few months, due to COVID-19 and because Muckadilla doesn’t have a sewage system.
The is now scheduled to reopen in January with work to start this week.
“Just because of COVID, it’s all taking a little longer than anticipated but we aren’t in a huge rush anyway in this current climate,” she said.
“We’re just farmers but thanks to help from our family, I’ll run the pub full-time and Marty will share the pub and farm.
“We will be moving into a little place behind the pub and we will be Muckadillions and make the population soar to a massive 11 people.
“We are all really excited for this brand new adventure, it feels like forever.”
They plan to have a small coffee shop, at least six cabins, free camping and are looking to have availability for vans in the future.
“It will be great to create a sense of normality again,” Mrs Coomber said.