Whim Creek Hotel may re-open as bids sought

The Whim Creek hotel in the Pilbara, which served last drinks in 2011, could reopen.

The pub, halfway between Roebourne and Port Hedland, had been in operation since the 1800s.

Venturex Resources acquired the hotel when it bought the Whim Creek copper project in 2010.

The company closed the pub more than a year ago while it completed a feasibility study into reopening the mine.

Venturex managing director Michael Mulroney says the company is now seeking expressions of interest to buy or lease the hotel.

"We don't anticipate coming back and mining at Whim Creek for another five or six years, so it seems a bit pointless to have the whole site there on care and maintenance, doing nothing, for five or six years when the opportunity is around," he said.

"We have some interest expressed by various parties to try and return the hotel into operation."

Mr Mulroney said the hotel closed in 2011 because the cost of keeping the facility open could not be met by the patronage.

"It's not something that's particularly suited to our business so rather than continue to have the site deteriorate for no good reason we decided to close it and put it on care and maintenance until such time as we had a plan to re-open," he said.

"We've had nearly 10 different parties contact us with different ideas and I think a number of them are going up to visit the complex over the next couple of weeks with a view that we can try and come to some sort of arrangement over the next one-to-two months, with hopefully a group that can operate the facility going forward."

Mr Mulroney said he had a preference for a group with a connection to the Pilbara to oversee the project.

The Roebourne Visitor Centre's manager Ruth Ellis says the hotel still resonates strongly with visitors.

"They come through and are quite surprised when we tell them it has closed as it is still in their brochures and what they hear along the road," she said.

Mrs Ellis says reopening the pub would help tourism.

"You have got a lot of people that go to Bella Bella and camp there and I am sure they, as well as the locals, would like to go there [Whim Creek] for a counter meal and a drink in the afternoon."

She said opening the venue would alleviate accommodation woes.

"Since it has been closed, accommodation has become more of a problem and I think accommodation there would ease it a bit.

"It's only an hour each way either from Hedland or Roebourne so it's not that bad."

Source: ABC News, 11 March 2013