AHA NSW president John Thorpe said rural and regional pub owners often needed to sell their licences to city poker machine venues to recoup money lost by running a country hotel.

“We don’t want any community without their local hotel, but the fact of the matter is that in country NSW particularly we are over-pubbed and over-clubbed,” Mr Thorpe said.

“Those hoteliers able to sell their licence, if it’s an unprofitable hotel, at least they’ve been given some compensation by being able to remove that licence.

“There’s no boom times out there and in most cases we have too many hotels and too many clubs.”

Mr Thorpe’s comments follow reports country pubs in NSW have vanished at a rate of one a month since the State Government granted hotels poker machines four years ago.

Within the north-west last drinks have been called at the Railway Hotels in Boggabri and Warialda as well as the Tableland Hotel in Torrington.

While the destinations of the Torrington and Boggabri licenses are still yet to be decided, the Warialda Railway Hotel licence will soon hang from the wall of the Huntington Tavern in Blacktown.

Gunnedah Railway Hotel proprietor Dean Milgate said he was strongly against the transfer of licences from the bush to the city.

“Especially the country pubs further out in the bush... they’re just taking their livelihoods away,” Mr Milgate said. “I’d hate to see anyone loose a pub just for someone wanting the licence.”

Overcrowding was not a problem in Gunnedah according to Mr Milgate who said six hotels and three clubs for the 9000-head population was “probably about right”.

He said the basics of good service and cold beer were still the key to a successful establishment.

“My pub holds itself fairly well... I’ve got a crowd of good regulars and I’m sure every other pub does the same.”