There were fears yet another drinking hole had dried up in town, but the Nemingha Tavern’s owners say there’s a lot of life left in the small pub.
Brothers Tim and Nathan Zinga are on the lookout for a new lessee at the pub, but in the meantime it’s a case of back to the future, with the former Tamworth boys using the changeover as a chance to return the pub to its former glory.
“For a couple of years, we’ve been the freehold owners of the pub,” Tim said.
“We had lessees in place, basically they’ve departed under unfortunate circumstances.
“The locals, they want the place to get back to how it used to be.”
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Mr Zinga said the Nemingha community had showed a lot of support for the pub with many offering to help out where they could.
“Even the publicans down the road, [Andrew Yeo] at the Kooty Hotel, even the locals in Nemingha and businesses have been offering to help,” he said.
I think the community would not quite lose its identity, but it has been here since 1917.
- Manager Bill Fitzgerald
“Whether it’s some maintenance, or plumbing, spraying weeds or mowing the lawns.
“It’s a very community-orientated place.”
He said a number of old locals had come out of the woodwork in recent weeks, curious about the recent work at the pub.
There has been a fair bit of change in the pub scene in Tamworth in the last couple of years, including the Loco closing its doors.
The Nemingha Tavern owner said the pub game was hard, but it was just a matter of “getting a good service out to the customers”.
Mr Zinga said the revamp was building up to a busy country music festival where there was to jam-packed weekends of entertainment on the cards including The Redneck Gentleman.
The current manager, Bill Fitzgerald, said the “doors were shut, not locked”, but the small community has chipped-in to help keep the taps flowing.
Mr Fitzgerald said it had the essence of a small “country pub”, but it just happened to be a few kilometres from the city.
He believed the establishment was all-important in Nemingha which was why a number of people had offered to help.
“It is a bit of a community spot and if it was not there, I think the community would not quite lose its identity, but it has been here since 1917,” he said.
Jacob McArthur
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
