Peter

Peter – “I grew up in Lismore and Casino areas. We worked for the Forestry Commission for 20 years and we’d driven past this pub for the last 15 years and seen it deteriorate. As we are into timber and woodwork we took it aside as a challenge. My partner and I took a redundancy package from the Public Service. We weren’t sure what we were going to do and the pub struck us as being a good project. We took it on and we have actually saved it from collapsing into the ground.

The timber verandah had gone past the 100 years of sun and weather so a builder friend of ours replaced all the piers holding the verandah up, right up to the roof, new beams and totally sheeted over the old floorboards. Most people whom have seen old pubs have seen very old timber boards replaced at some stage and this pub was at the stage it was unsafe upstairs. She’s as solid as a rock now.

The Rappville Hotel was built by Henry Rapp in 1911 and what made Rappville happen was the train line came through in 1905. Henry saw the opportunity as the train line revolutionised the whole transport system. Instead of people having to ride horse and cart to Casino or ride coaches to Brisbane they could catch the train and be there the next day. From a logistics point of view moving logs, cows and pigs instead of herding or dragging them with a bullock they could take them by train. From a saw milling point of view you could cut sawn timber here and have it on the train the next day whereas before your bullock would be dead before you got to Brisbane.

Henry Rapp was a butcher and also had large properties here so he saw the opportunity around the railway to build a hotel. People were hungry, thirsty and needed somewhere to sleep so the town grew and boomed and all the houses you see down the road here at various times were butchers and bakers, blacksmiths, lolly shops and grocers. Most recently the pub and the Post Office is all that’s left now. The place boomed through the 70’s. They had a big sleeper yard here. The guys would cut railway sleepers and bring them here and they’d be passed. The boys would get their cheque and come over to the pub and spend the money. Most of the people were living in Casino and Lismore rather than here in the town.

We’ve totally painted the pub. It was pink and purple for the last 15 years and now it’s heritage colours. The classic handrail upstairs we had sandblasted and we lifted it a metre high which was a requirement. We have also made the dining room somewhere people want to come. We have become a local hub for live music where people want to come. Some weekends we have a show on. We love it when the band have a certain following and we rely on the locals to come out. We have groups of bikers, groups of classic car people and lots of horse riders. We have Anzac Day dawn services here. We also have the Rapville dog trials which is one of those unique events that occurs here and we have the Rapvillle Races. They aren’t held here anymore in Rappville, they are held in Casino. The pub sponsors the Rapville Cup and the social club go into town on the bus and enjoy the races.

The Rappville Hotel consists of 9 bedrooms upstairs. It’s a commercial hotel. It was designed by architects Popplewell and Sykes and they designed a thing called a Commercial Hotel. Pubs that looked exactly like this were built in Lismore, Staples Commercial Hotel which is the site where Mary Gilhooleys is now and also The Lion Hotel in South Casino till it burnt down. The problem was all these timber hotels burn down. You can add Lawrence, Mallanganee, Bonalbo and more recently Uki and certainly the Lion to that list. So this has avoided burning down and to do that we have had to bring in restrictions to protect it from fire.

The Rappville Pub is for sale. My partner Jayne and I have taken it from being unsafe to being a very solid structure. We are ready to pass it on to the next person to take it to the next level. Basically returning it to accomodation which at the moment is a fire safety issue and also regulating the kitchen. Various people have different ideas as to what they would do so we want to leave that to them. The pub is on 2 lots of land with an additional 10 lots of land as well. So 12 lots of land come with the pub which is basically 3 hectares. Most of that land is flood prone. The pub itself is flood free but the rest of the land may flood.

Those trees across the road were planted in 1913 and that memorial over there is our memorial to the fallen Anzacs from the Rapville district. That’s where we gather for our Anzac Day service. I’m ready to move on. I have a farm in Springrove.

I still do nightshifts as an AIN at the hospital and then I come here to take over from my partner. She did the late shift last night. It’s such a beautiful pub and if it was in Bangalow, Lismore or Byron it would be worth a lot whereas out here it’s a unique building but if it burnt down it probably wouldn’t be replaced. “