The last of Lismore's iconic pubs opens its doors today for the first time since 28 February 2022. The Station Hotel front bar is open to the public once again.

The iconic hotel, on the Union Street/Casino Street roundabout, has been operating the bottle shop and a small bar section at the rear of the pub for two years while proprietor Mark Neilson worked out what he wanted to do with the front bar.

There was no rush, as the bottle shop is the main part of the business, and Mark wanted to get the design, look and feel right.

Mark reflected on the damage done nearly three years ago.

"The roof caved in; it just collapsed. There were two Bobcats working out there for two days, 10 skip bins of rubbish."

"This pub has been through so many floods. It's designed for it really, that's why we don't over pretty it. It's very important that it's able to be washed through. So, what we did this time was take it to another level."

Enter well-known local builder Joel Jensen Constructions. Mark had seen some of Joel's work around town, did a bit of research and gave him a call. Mark sat down with Joel and his designer, Emily, to get the brief.

"The brief was they wanted to make it feel like stepping back in time going into an old school," Joel Jensen explained, "Somewhere where people, you know, blokes, women, families feel warm and welcome, but then also creating a good vibe. Plus, having the rail trail opening, we want to sort of keep that heritage and give the station respect.

"We sourced a lot of local timbers. So, all the bridge timbers you'll find around the bars and around the TAB machine. That's all locally sourced off rail lines, which we got from Jules at Off The Rails in Byron. He goes and sources a lot of the timbers. We actually made the bar tops out of salvaged timber from the old St Mary's. It was demolished, and rather than chuck it out, we tried to bring back a bit of that history. We screwed and fixed them all together, sanded them up and repurposed them into bar tops. So they're, I don't know, 150-odd years old.

The tiles on the floor and on the bar wall, once again, have the heritage look, and as Joel says, it gives you the feeling of stepping back in time.

(The rebuilt Station Hotel showing off the tiles, St Mary's bar top and pressed tin ceiling. All keeping with the history of the building)

"Locally sourced once again," Joel said, "Ray from Lismore Tiles & Mosaics went nuts for us and sourced a heap of tiles. He was brilliant."

"I was actually just saying to Mark before, it was a pretty tight timeline, so to speak. They didn't put me under any pressure, but we wanted to get it open for Christmas, and around the rail trail opening, and all the local trades and suppliers were just typical of what this town's all about. Everyone was just like, yeah, we're on."

The other component of the Station Hotel is its flood-resilience.

Mark explained that "No mud can get behind anything, nothing. The flood comes through, we hose the bastard down, put the electrics back in, and we're ready to go again.

Mark explained that if a big flood goes through the Station Hotel, all the electrics need to be rewired. "That's just par for the course, but that's pretty much cheap compared to the rest of the job.

"Right now, the tellie's can come off the wall. It's all old railway sleepers. This floor is designed to come up, it's in squares and taken upstairs very quickly.

(The timber wall in the TAB room)

"The bar is designed to be washed down, scrubbed and start again very quickly. Everything's been designed that way for this bar. So, hopefully, it'll stand the test of time. Doug Hogan was here for about 50 years, and that old bar did the job, and hopefully, this bar will be the same."

Mark estimates that the flood-resilient changes made will only cost him 10% of this rebuild for any future floods.

There is no doubt that this flood rebuild, using some modern materials, is certainly true to the character of the building.

The Station Hotel South Lismore is open seven days a week. It closes:

• Monday and Tuesday: 8pm
• Wednesday and Thursday: 9pm
• Friday: 11pm
• Saturday: 9 or 10pm
• Sunday: 7pm

Mark doesn't want to spend $200,000 on putting in a commercial kitchen as it will be damaged during a flood. So, he has Skimmos Food Truck on site, supplying food to his customers.

Mark had a soft opening on Monday with the tradies that were involved in the rebuild. He wanted to test the new beer lines and to make sure everything else was working as expected.

(Federal member for Page Kevin Hogan, Station Hotel proprietor Mark Neilson and Joel Jensen share a beer at Monday's soft opening)

Today is the first day the Station Hotel will be open to the public in nearly three years. Go and check it out.