A community meeting at Cygnet Town Hall on Saturday set the wheels turning on an ambitious plan to buy the long-closed bottom pub (Commercial Hotel) through a cooperative ownership structure.
An interview on ABC radio Hobart, a few posts on Facebook and some posters on the Cygnet main street resulted in around 350 people gathering to explore whether the town could collectively purchase the heritage-listed hotel, which has sat boarded up for years and was put into receivership in March.
The buzz in the air was palpable and organisers were thrilled with the turn out.
“If you cannot make it work here, where can you make it work?” organiser Billie Rankin told the crowd.
“Just look around the room.”
Rankin steered community discussion and was quick to manage expectations, stressing the meeting was exploratory, acknowledging the legal and financial complexities surrounding the site, currently in the hands of administrator Rodgers Reidy.
The pub is expected to be on the market within weeks, pending legal proceedings.
The property is on a single title including approximately half a hectare of surrounding residential land, which includes sheds, an orchard, and garden.
A previous buyer group had modelled purchasing the building for around $1.3 million and undertaking renovations in the range of $900,000 to $1.2 million, but did not proceed.
Bridgette Davies, another organiser, had permission to share their assessment at the meeting.
It found the pub had seen ‘very little capital improvement in around forty years,’ with work needed on the roof, verandah, electrics, fire safety systems, commercial kitchen, toilets, heating and cooling systems, car park, and asbestos removal.
Molly Kendall from the Co-op Federation outlined possible cooperative models.
Under the proposed structure, community members would buy in as members, with a contribution of $200 to $500 discussed as an early example, giving them one vote each regardless financial input.
An elected board of seven to 12 people would oversee governance, while a hired publican or hospitality operator would run the day-to-day business.
“If everyone in this hall signs up for the co-op, it does not mean everyone is making decisions about bar snacks,” said Rankin.
“We own the asset, and we employ someone to run the business properly.”
Cygnet builder Lachlan Maxwell, who had inspected the structure, described its bones as ‘absolutely beautiful’ but cautioned that significant work lay ahead.
“Get out of your mind that it can be done for very little,” he told the crowd.
“The verandah alone could be over $100,000.”
He estimated building works of around $900,000 at a minimal margin, not including furniture and fit-out, with the project potentially taking twelve months or longer depending on heritage approvals and the availability of skilled volunteers.
Funding options discussed included community debentures – loans from community members repaid over 10 to 15 years, with optional interest of up to around four to five per cent – as well as membership contributions and grants.
The Castlemaine Community Hotel in Victoria was cited as a successful example, having raised around $1.5 million through community loans from approximately 300 contributors.
A non-distributing cooperative structure was favoured, meaning members would not profit from capital growth but would benefit from access to the space, member pricing, and the positives of a community asset.
The model also improves grant eligibility compared to a standard commercial structure.
Speakers were frank about the risks, with a community member with legal and commercial experience explaining that individual members would not be personally liable if the business failed – but loans and membership contributions could be lost.
“Put in only what you are prepared to lose,” was the advice given.
If an initial membership drive failed to raise enough to proceed, contributions would be returned.
The greater risk, speakers acknowledged, was running the business after purchase.
By the time of the meeting, around 68 expressions of interest had already been received, with about twelve people flagging interest in membership of a steering committee.
Organisers said the immediate priority was the formation of the committee, drawn from people with relevant experience in legal, financial, hospitality, and governance fields, which would then drive the cooperative’s formal establishment.
Once paying members were enrolled, a first annual general meeting would be held to elect the board by democratic vote.
Four parallel workstreams were identified as urgent: engaging with the administrators handling the sale, developing the legal structure, building the funding model, and producing a business plan.
Organisers said the co-op idea extended beyond the pub itself.
“Even if the Bottom Pub turns out not to be feasible, we have still met, learned about cooperative structure, and could form a co-op to prepare for other community assets that may come up in Cygnet.”
