Callington’s heart is about to come back to life

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“We’re here, we exist, it’s happening.”

So says Sarah Manhire, one of two newly arrived operations managers, in the front bar at the long-dormant Callington Hotel.

Its doors were open for a short while on Tuesday morning, just long enough for a dozen locals to drop off resumes and kick up some of the dust that had settled on its refurbished interior in the years since most of the building work was finished.

About a decade has passed since the last beers were poured at the Cally, and there have been contentious issues to deal with in the meantime, from development approvals to liquor licensing.

But a reopening has now been pencilled in for October sometime.

Yes, locals have heard it before – but new managers Ms Manhire and Kellie Pavlovic promised things would be different this time.

For one thing, they were spending more and more of their days working behind the scenes to get the place in order.

In fact, they were urgently looking for a rental property in the area so they could cut down on commuting time, and ideally settle in for the longer term.

For another thing, there were new faces on the hotel’s management team, and a “high-profile South Aussie chef” would be setting up his kitchen and hiring his team over the next few weeks.

Bringing the old hotel back to life won’t be easy, but the décor and the vision are in place.

“We know you’ve had a lot of false starts, a lot of broken promises, a lot of false hope,” Ms Manhire said.

The hotel has been significantly extended since it last traded, with a sports bar and other additions on the North Terrace side.

Several interior walls have been knocked out, too, transforming what had been a warren of somewhat cramped rooms into a spacious, contemporary space which will apparently be licensed for crowds of up to 600 people.

What’s left is a striking mix of the modern and historic, with plenty of exposed stone and woodwork, and copper lining the bar in a nod to Callington’s mining past.

Ms Manhire said the finished hotel would offer:

• A mix of fine dining and traditional pub food for lunch and dinner, including wood-fired pizza
• Up to 15 different beers on tap, including from Barossa Valley Brewing
• A bakery and coffees in the morning, with coffee beans roasted on site
• Live music and/or DJs
• A Liquor Legends takeaway bottle-o
• Six pokies in a back room

There will be no TAB on site – “it ruins the vibe,” Ms Manhire said.

She hoped the hotel would be able to offer a lunch order service to the primary school across the road.

Its owners would like to become an Australia Post agency, too, bringing a postal service back into Callington after its recent move to Kanmantoo.

In the coming years, once the pub is back on its feet, they might aspire to offer accommodation as well.

But what they need right now is staff: bartenders, kitchen hands, cleaners, gaming attendants and more.

The revamped building, and the pitch from its managers, impressed the locals who came along on Tuesday.

“It’s awesome,” said Helen Langsdorf, who worked at the hotel years ago.

“It used to look like one of your old-worldly country pubs, but this is awesome.

“We saw the workers coming in, things being done, then it shut down … if you run into people around town, all they ask is ‘when is the pub going to be open?’

“It has been a very sore subject.”

Fair enough, too – the Callington’s revamp began back before Murray Bridge’s Bridgeport, Murray Bridge or Swanport hotels were done up.

The countdown is on.

• More information: Visit callingtonhotel.com.au or search for Callington Hotel on Facebook.
• Apply for a job or suggest a rental property: Contact Sarah on 0404 003 185.