PHOENIX: Faced with the prospect of a town with no beer, residents in several regional New South Wales towns have banded together to buy their local pub.
Industry commentators are seeing a rise in the number of first-time owners entering the pub trade.
Increasingly, it is locals who are buying in, to preserve their town’s only meeting place.
The Conapaira Hotel is one such case, in the Southern NSW town of Rankins Springs.
Its only pub closed 18 months ago, prompting locals to buy in…