The Bredbo Inn, one of the most recognisable hospitality landmarks in regional New South Wales, is heading to auction.
Built in 1836, the heritage property at 1 Monara Highway once served as a Cobb & Co staging post, with stables out the back for horse carriages travelling between towns.
These days it’s better known as the first stop for snow-goers making the trip from Sydney and Canberra to the Snowy Mountains.
Ray White Rural Yass director Simon Southwell is marketing the sale, with a buyer’s guide of around $1.8 million.
Simon described the Inn as far more than a typical country pub.
“The Bredbo Inn is far more than a quintessential country pub; it is a thriving, multi-faceted hospitality powerhouse sitting on a massive 8,500sqm block,” Simon said.
The site includes an eight-room motel, a public bar, restaurant, bottle shop and TAB facilities, along with a caravan park that can host between 30 and 40 vans on busy nights.
There’s also DA approval for five additional accommodation cabins, plus a large shed that could suit a ski-hire business, mechanical workshop or factory space.
Current owners Raquel and Mathew Thomas have run the Inn for eight years and are now looking to slow down and move closer to their grandchildren in the Illawarra.
Raquel said the location was central to the business.
“It’s the absolute first stop going to the snow without having to turn off the main drag, and there are no other pubs around to compete with us,” she said.
“We’ve poured our hearts into this place, but we’re tired and ready for a new chapter.”
Under the Thomases, the Inn built a reputation for its 20-hour slow-cooked pies – the beef dark ale pie among the favourites – and became a hub for community events including Australia Day yabby races, an October car and bike show, a New Year’s Eve party and an Easter weekend truck and machinery show drawing crowds of up to 5,000.
Mathew said the venue also hosts an annual giant pumpkin-growing competition, with the current record standing at 147.6 kilograms.
The Inn carries a place in Australian folklore too. It’s believed to be the final resting place of the horseman who inspired Banjo Paterson’s “The Man from Snowy River” – local rider Charlie McKeahnie, who according to legend died on the premises after falling from his horse. Regional historian Tim the Yowie Man has researched the claim and supports the Inn as the site.
The beer garden also features a memorial to the crew of the C130 water bomber that crashed 20 kilometres away during the Black Summer bushfires in January 2020, including a propeller gifted by the United States Embassy.
Raquel said representatives from the embassy and Coulson Aviation visit regularly to pay their respects.
“We also take immense pride in the bushfire memorial we created. The families of the American victims want to come out, see the area, and witness what the community has done to honour them. It’s deeply meaningful to everyone who steps foot here,” Raquel said.
Located an hour from Canberra, the property will go to auction on 17 July.
