Captains Flat Hotel: History, Location & New Whisky Bar

At 51 Foxlow Street in the former mining town of Captains Flat, New South Wales, an Art Deco pub has become a small-town revival story. The Captains Flat Hotel reopened in 2024 after roughly four years shut, and its new whisky bar, named 1938, is part of the reason travellers are finding their way back. This guide gathers what official tourism, local reporting and hospitality-industry coverage say about the hotel’s history, ownership, setting and what you can expect on a visit.

Last checked: 2026-10-11

Location: Captains Flat, New South Wales, Australia · Year opened: 1937 · Notable feature: Longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere (historical claim) · Key recent event: Sold to the Durr family and new whisky bar added (2026)

Where Is Captains Flat, and How Do You Get There?

Captains Flat is a small town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, about 45 minutes’ drive south-east of Canberra. Destination NSW lists the hotel under the Queanbeyan area and Bungendore tourism region, which makes those towns useful search terms when you are planning the route.

“The Captains Flat Hotel is a 1938 art deco hotel in original condition.”

Destination NSW

Distance from Canberra

The travel time most often repeated in the hotel’s promotional material and in local coverage is around 45 minutes by car. That estimate will vary with your starting point in Canberra, but it is a reasonable planning figure for a day trip.

The town itself is small, and Foxlow Street is the main place to stop. The hotel is at number 51, near the centre of the village.

The Southern Tablelands setting

The hotel’s history is tied to the nearby lead mine. ABC News reports that the pub served the large mining workforce during Captains Flat’s peak years, before mining activity declined and the town’s population shrank.

Quick insights

• Drive time from Canberra: approximately 45 minutes.
• Years in operation: about 89 years if you count from 1937.
• Historical claim: once held the longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere.
• Recent change: a speakeasy-style whisky bar named 1938 is the hotel’s 2026 addition.

Key facts and hotel details

Essential specifications

Who Owns the Captains Flat Hotel?

ABC News identified Sharanne Witt as the owner and publican who reopened the hotel in 2024, after it had been closed since 2020. Coverage of the launch described Witt’s approach as more about preservation than reinvention.

“The pub has always been the lifeblood of the community.”

— Sharanne Witt (This is Canberra)

Witt was also explicit about the hotel’s character. In an interview with About Regional, she said she did not intend to turn the pub into a bistro or fill the bar with poker machines.

“I didn’t have any intentions of turning it into a bistro or taking out the bar and putting in poker machines.”

— Sharanne Witt (About Regional)

About Regional later reported that the restored hotel went back on the market, and hospitality-industry publication PubTIC covered the property’s sale process as a marker of how much the town’s attitude toward the pub had changed. The clearest documented point remains the 2024 reopening under Witt.

What to watch: ownership after the 2025 market listing was not confirmed in the sources gathered for this article, so future management changes may shift the day-to-day operation.

What to Do at and Around the Hotel

The pub is the centrepiece of Captains Flat. Destination NSW describes the building as a 1938 Art Deco hotel in original condition, and the restoration has kept that character visible. The bar area is the most direct way to read the building’s past.

The 1938 whisky bar

According to the hotel’s own description of 1938, the bar is named after the year the hotel is said to have opened. The hotel describes it as an intimate, speakeasy-inspired bar with timber, warm lighting and Art Deco styling, offering Australian and international whiskies, premium spirits, local wine and classic cocktails.

Regional reporting places the bar’s opening on 17 July 2026, with Friday and Saturday evening sessions at launch.

One reviewer’s take

A short review on Vymaps described the hotel as an affordable local pub with good meals and a cosy atmosphere, while adding that it was not necessarily exceptional. That is one review from an online aggregator, not a representative rating, but it matches the general positioning of a country pub rather than a polished destination venue.

Local heritage and mining relics

The town’s mining past is visible in its streetscape, even if the mine itself is no longer active. ABC News notes that the hotel served the workforce of the nearby lead mine, and regional coverage frames the hotel’s revival as a community project in a town that lost population after mining ended.

Other historic towns nearby

If you are planning a broader regional drive, Bungendore and Queanbeyan are the two nearby town names attached to the hotel’s Destination NSW listing. They are practical fallback stops, although this article did not gather verified comparison data on their individual pubs.

A sample day trip from Canberra

1. Leave Canberra in the morning and allow about 45 minutes’ drive south-east to Captains Flat.
2. Spend early afternoon at the hotel: look at the Art Deco bar and the heritage detailing, and have lunch if the kitchen is open.
3. Walk along Foxlow Street to see the town’s heritage buildings and mining-era remnants.
4. On a Friday or Saturday evening, finish at 1938 for a whisky or classic cocktail. Check the hotel’s official channels before you travel.

Why Is It Called Captains Flat?

The town’s name is not fully explained in the material reviewed for this article. The mining era is the most common context, but none of the sources gathered here confirms the identity of the captain in the town’s name.

Mining-era connection

What is documented is the hotel’s place in that mining story. ABC News says the pub served a large workforce when the nearby lead mine was operating, and the town’s decline after mining ended explains why a heritage pub mattered so much to the community that fought to reopen it.

A short timeline

• 1937 or 1938: the hotel opens during Captains Flat’s mining era.
• 1963: lead-mine operations end or substantially decline, reducing the town’s workforce.
• 2020: the hotel closes during the COVID-era period.
• 22 June 2024: a soft reopening is announced.
• 29 June 2024: an official reopening launch is announced.
• 17 July 2026: the 1938 whisky bar is reported to open.

The catch: both the name origin and the precise opening year are still unresolved in published sources. Treat those details as local lore reported with confidence by different outlets until a primary record settles them.

The bottom line: for travellers tracing mining-town history or looking for a country pub with a new whisky bar, the Captains Flat Hotel is the clearest single stop in this part of the Southern Tablelands.

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