ABOVE: Carl Agnew is getting ready to open the pub doors at Bonalbo. Photo: Susanna Freymark
STORY by Susanna Freymark
Same, but different.
Bonalbo’s Dog ‘n’ Bull Hotel has new publicans Carl and Marcy Agnew.
While the pub will look the same, there are some changes being made.
Residents are keen to see the hotel open again after months of it being closed. Carl is getting calls every day asking when the pub is reopening.
It’s a matter of days, Carl said. He has the “hiccup” of a gaming license to sort out.
Even though the Sydney firm that bought the pub moved the poker machines to Campbelltown and other places, and the Bonalbo pub has zero pokies, the licence for the machines is still attached to the Dog ‘n’ Bull.
There have been so many hiccups in the past four months, Carl said.
The couple moved from the Gold Coast to their Tabulam property full time in 2020.
Carl, 54, ran a smash repair business at the Gold Coast for 27 years. It’s still going, he said.
But it was time for something different and Carl said he was “too young to retire.” He had always had this idea of how cool it would be to run a country pub.
“I’ve always wanted to do it and thought it would be more outbacky than this …” he said.
Carl admitted he had no experience running a pub, which he is leasing from the Sydney owners.
“I’m a people guy,” he said.
The staff that were working at the pub previously will be back whenthey open and they will show Carl and Marcy how things work.
The side room where the pokies were is now a kid’s room. There will be a camera viewing the children so parents can keep an eye on them while they’re having a meal.
The menu on offer at the pub will be limited to start with.
“We want to get it right,” Carl said.
The focus will be on local produce.
Carl has ordered the same lines of alcohol the previous publicans ordered, “because that’s what the community wants,” he said.
He is keen to have live music at the pub too.
As a former rugby league and AFL player, sports memorabilia still adorn the pub walls but there’s a few new jerseys framed and displayed.
Carl is as keen as the locals to open the pub doors.
Any day now, he reckons, any day.
