A lifelong Connection to Beltana Inspired One Couple to Restore the Long-Closed Pub
After a career spent helping remote communities thrive, Jan Ferguson OAM could have been forgiven for putting her feet up.
Instead, she and her husband took on one of the biggest projects of their lives, restoring the long-closed Beltana Hotel.
For Jan, whose decades-long career focused on regional and remote Australia, including work with Indigenous communities that earned her an Order of Australia Medal in 2017, the project wasn’t about becoming a publican.
It was about protecting a place that has been part of her family’s story for decades.
“We wanted to save the building and bring her back to life,” Jan said.
“The building is statuesque and it would be sad to see it fall into disrepair.”
Why Beltana?
Beltana has long held a special place in Jan’s life. Her parents ran the town’s post office and general store, while beginning the process of formal recognition and preservation one of South Australia’s most remarkable outback towns.
That connection goes back to the 1970s and continues today through Jan’s involvement with the Beltana Progress Association and her broader work supporting regional communities.
“Beltana has been home for us for a long time,” she said.
“It is a beautiful location, steeped in history and has a very genuine sense of place informed by its Adnyamathanha and post-colonial history.”
So when the opportunity came to restore the historic hotel, it felt less like a career change and more like the next chapter.
The hotel closed as a pub in 1958 and had not been lived in as a residence since the 1990s.
“It has good bones,” Jan said. “It just needed some TLC.”
It Has Good Bones
The restoration wasn’t without its challenges.
Working through an outback summer, Jan and her husband pushed through to reopen the hotel as quickly as possible despite the greulling heat.
The project also required a significant chunk of personal investment.
Now, Jan hopes the business will gradually fund the next stage of restoration, including the hotel’s courtyard and the former manager’s quarters.
The aim behind the renovation has never been to transform the building into something new. Every decision has been about preserving its heritage while giving it a new lease of life.
Like many, Jan believes country pubs play an important role beyond food and drinks.
They become gathering places where locals reconnect, visitors pop in, and communities share their stories.
“The hotel provides a place where visitors can engage with the history of Beltana, ask questions and feel welcomed,” she said.
Rather than a traditional country pub menu, the Beltana Hotel has carved out its own niche with boutique South Australian food and beverages, showcasing independent producers including Woodside Cheese, Bec Hardy Wines, Lenswood Cider, Flinders Gin and the hotel’s own pale ale brewed by Parachilna Brew Project. Guests can settle in with a gourmet cheese platter, enjoy a local SA drink and soak up the town at a slower pace.
Stories From The Past
One of Jan’s favourite moments since reopening came when members of the last publican’s family walked back through the doors.
As children, they’d lived in the hotel before it closed and returned with memories that brought the building back to life in an entirely different way.
One recalled spending hours watching her mother and aunt on their hands and knees scrubbing the hotel’s slate hallway floor. Jan joked that the old slate floors don’t get that treatment these days.
One of the unexpected joys since reopening has been welcoming two 94-year-old men who remembered drinking at the hotel before it closed decades ago. They shared stories from those days, many of them about their interest in the publican’s daughters!
They’re exactly the kinds of stories Jan and her husband hoped would return when the hotel reopened.
Keeping Beltana Alive
You don’t have to spend long in Beltana to realise this isn’t a town that’s been left behind. Historic buildings have been lovingly restored, and even newer homes have been designed to look like they’ve always belonged.
Jan hopes the hotel encourages people to stay a little longer, wander the interpretive trails, visit Warrioota Creek and uncover the stories that have shaped Beltana over generations.
“The hotel provides a place where visitors can engage with the history of Beltana, ask questions and feel welcomed,” she said.
She believes having a functioning hotel ensures Beltana remains more than a collection of historic buildings by creating employment and giving visitors another reason to stop, stay and connect with the town.
For Jan, retirement didn’t mean slowing down.
It simply gave her time to answer the next calling.
This time, it was Beltana.
BELTANA HOTEL
WHERE: 3 First Street, Beltana
OPENING HOURS: Thursday, Saturday and most Sundays 11am- 6pm
Friday 11am-8pm
Extended hours during school holidays.
MORE INFO: Via Royal Victoria Hotel, Beltana Facebook Page or Website
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