Hello Neighbours - The Railway Hotel Spring Hill

A great and friendly local pub

The local pub is the heart and soul of any country village and they don’t come much friendlier than Spring Hill’s Railway Hotel.

Retired Bellingen bus driver, Garry Sampson, took over the historic 1912 hotel five months ago and has brought new life to the pub.

“I was retired for three years, but didn't feel like hanging my boots up. I was sort of looking around for something and this came up, so I decided to buy a pub,” said Garry, who had never spent time behind the bar prior to taking on the Railway Hotel.

“No, I haven't been in pubs before, but it's going really, really well — it is probably going 50 per cent better than I thought it might have gone. We’ve got some fantastic people around her and if you just try to please people they are really, really nice about things. I'm thoroughly enjoying it!”

As well as the locals, Garry gets plenty of regulars from Orange, Blayney and Millthorpe. The pub is also a popular venue for birthday parties and other special occasions.

“We've got plenty of parties coming up,” said Garry. “Anyone’s welcome to come out here. Give us a ring and we can book a table for you, or book in a group, we can work out a party or anything for you.”

If you haven’t been to the Railway Hotel for a while, Garry has already been stamping his mark on the place and there are more improvements in the planning

“We've pulled the centre bar out and we want to expand and open up out the back. We just want to tidy the place up a bit,” he said.

“From Wednesday to Saturday, we do evening meals and we do a Saturday and a Sunday lunch. All our specials are around the $15 mark and it's good quality pub food.”

The pub is definitely family friendly, with an enclosed rear yard and playground. The undercover area also includes a fire for the cooler months.

Garry even operates a courtesy bus and will take groups all the way to Orange, Blayney or Lucknow.

The Railway Hotel also has three rooms (one double and two twin room starting from $45 a night.