By Tania Phillips
For most of the year Leyburn is a quiet little village and being the owner and publican of the local pub is usually like owning any other country pub – a seven day a week job at the hub of a small community.
But for one, fast, furious and fun weekend Leyburn and it’s pub, The Royal Hotel, become the epicentre for car fans from all over South East Queensland, Northern NSW and way beyond as The Historic Leyburn Sprints speed into town.
And the town populations swells and swells – last year the Sprints attracted 16,000 people – a bit of a shock to the system for new owners of a pub in a town which posts 400 in it’s entire post code.
Of course when Chris and Ruth Morahan bought the Royal early last year, they knew about the sprints, – they knew mostly what to expect but Ruth said knowing what was coming and experiencing it for yourself isn’t quite the same.
So, as she counts down to her second year of Leyburn Sprints Ruth said she and Chris are even better prepared for the event than last year. Learning from their first one and problem what they needed to – adding quicker meals to the Sunday night menu to cope with demand and moving more of the operation to the front of the pub.
But that’s what team Ruth and Chris do – thanks to year’s as members of Apex, growing up in pubs in Chris’ case and working in admin in Ruth’s.
“We took over on 14 February last year,” Ruth explained.
“Chris’s family had the Grand Hotel in Warwick from 1967 to 1996, so he grew up in a pub. Prior to that they had the Cambooya Hotel and Rosewood prior to that. He’s generation third publican.
“But I’m not, my background was administration before this. But Chris and I have been together for a long time. I married into the family and worked in the pub a little bit, not like Chris did.
“Chris’ background is IT I have more of a Tertiary Educational background. I came from Student Services at University of Queensland and working at a residential college at UQ to all of a sudden running a hotel and staffing,” she laughed admitting it was a little bit of a culture shock to be so involved with the pub.
And then of course just a few months later she found herself smack in the middle of the annual Leyburn Sprints event which brings beautiful old cars and lots of people to the usually sleepy little town.
“It was a little bit of a baptism of fire, but Chris and I have been involved with APEX Australia, up until we retired at 45,” she said.
“We’d been in the organisation for 20 years, volunteering and running large events, learning how to run large events and things like that,” she said.
“Running events wasn’t new to us, being involved in the sprints was. Chris had volunteered out at the sprints a few times many years ago when we were living in Warwick with the Apex crew but one of the things we took onboard last year when we did it, was listen to the staff on what the pinch points were and try to rectify some of those.
“Not to say that Shane and Sam did it wrong or anything, but new eyes, new ways, Chris is a problem solver with his IT background. So, one of the things we did was put an extra till in the bar. We had three tills in the bar. We put a can bar out the back and a garden bar out the side. So that we didn’t just have one service points of alcohol and drinks was spread out across the property so it was less concentrated.”
But 16,000 was probably more than they expected, it’s actually pretty awe inspiring that the little town could have so many people.
“Yeah I know right,” she laughed.
“Being the first one for us, Chris and I are very much a partnership, one of the thing we bring to the business is that we treat people like they are volunteers, they are our family, they are our helpers and without them this can’t happen,” she said.
“We did some things behind the scenes. One of the things the staff had brought up, they didn’t have time for breaks. It’s stupid busy. You’re trying to get stuff done, you just can’t. I thought ok, we need to have some food. We made sure they had platters of sandwiches that were nutritious and they could sit for 10 minutes grab some sandwiches, we had a little break area so they could just get away from the bar for half an hour and we’d step in.
“That’s something we learned from our old pub – you look after your staff.”
Ruth said while running a pub has it’s challenges, overall she was enjoying it.
“To me, I’ve never really been a manager but I’m a leader in my own way, I train and I teach and I like leading in a team, being in a team,” she said.
“I don’t like being an empire builder, my philosophy is if I know the knowledge then everybody knows the knowledge. If I get hit by a bus I have a File for Justin – Just in case you get hit by a bus,” she laughed.
Being so busy, she admits a little look around the Show and Shine last year was all she saw of the actual event.
“This year I’m going on a helicopter ride, I missed that last year but I’m doing it this year because I realised I’m allowed to have a little break,” Ruth said.
“It is a culture shock, it was interesting just watching the sprints committee. (President) Trish and her team of people are an amazing group, watching how they pull this together. They have obviously done it for a long time- 26 years. Just watching them pull all this together is amazing.”
