We’ve sung about the pub with no beer.

Tabulam now has the pub with no publican.

George and Alison Martin ran the Tabulam Hotel for decades and George, now 78, had talked about retiring for years.

During covid lockdowns, the Martins kept the bottle shop open and continued trading but as in most small towns, the Tabulam Hotel is a meeting place for locals, so it was important to reopen as soon as possible, Mr Martin said in February.

Yet while the Martins enjoy their well deserved down time at Banora Point in Tweed Shire, the Tabulam Hotel sits empty — doors closed, no beer, no publican.

The person who bought the pub has on-sold the entitlements. This includes the six poker machines.

Because of a change in rules a few years ago, country pub licences can no longer be moved. So anyone wanting to run the pub must run it in Tabulam – and at the moment, that means without pokies.

SBX Business Brokers had the Tabulam Hotel listed for $2 million with a weekly profit of $5415 a week.

SBX’s Peter Compton said the pub sold for $2.2 million – but not by them.

He confirmed that the gaming machines were then sold and the buyer, from a conglomerate, is not interested in running the pub.

So the Tabby pub doors will remain closed unless someone wants a country pub without poker machines.

It will be a hard sell, Mr Compton said.

“It’s getting someone to go out there and run it,” he said.

Pubs for sale

• Mallanganee Hotel is for sale for $1 million
• The Coraki Hotel is for sale
• The Illawong in Evans Head sold for $14.5 million to Craig Laundy
• The Great Northern in Byron Bay sold for $80 million
• The Lunatic Hotel in Drake is not for sale –despite rumours to the contrary

This article appeared in the Richmond River Independent, 7 July 2021.