Colonial Inn History

The Commercial Hotel, now known as the Gundaroo Colonial Inn and Crowes Restaurant & Wine Bar was established in 1872 and owned by Matt and Beat Crowe. It operated as a wine bar selling only wine and spirits until 1994. A syndicate of local people bought the wine bar in 1999. The premises and business are now owned by George and Carole Nicola.

Renovations of the building were undertaken between 2003-2004, with the finishing touches and outdoor beer garden being completed in 2007. Accommodation facilities were added in August 2008

Our vision is to preserve the historic building whist making it a more aesthetically pleasing place for the locals and the broader community, we welcome everyone to visit and to develop it into a friendly, inviting place, and as a community meeting place, where groups can gather for meetings, parties, and social gatherings in general. It also supports local employment and the local economy as a village tourist attraction.

The building itself retains its original structure, but commercial use has now been made of all the existing space. Originally only one room was used as the Star Saloon Bar, other areas were used by the Crow family as living and sleeping areas, and the back slab hut as it existed was their kitchen.

We have used both existing timberwork and locally sourced new timber to renovate the floors using a combination of Iron Bark, Red Gum, Black But and Yellow Box. Many walls and existing fireplaces have been preserved and given new Red Gum mantelpieces, The walls and surrounds were rough rendered to suit the era. New amenities, which feature locally hand crafted pottery sinks with the Wine Bar logo, which are complimented by earthen tiles.

A large cool room has been externally claded with original old slab hut palings – to retain its rustic charm. The old kitchen area has now been converted into a commercial kitchen for Crowes Restaurant, and the off licence bottle shop in Crowes Wine Bar offers patrons a wide variety of wines. 

We are a big supporter of Canberra’s local wines, and we welcome you to try our selection. 

As no beer was sold previously, and the face that the bar was very basic with no running water, major renovations were underaken to the bar area in order to bring it up to today’s standard. We now serve draught and boutique beers, a wide selection of wines, spirits, and mixed drinks.

Some very special and individual features have been included such as the Red Gum parquetry star insert in the new Star Saloon bar floor made from Red Gum, and beer railings around the bar walls, made from the raw tree edge of Iron Bark. The bar features a magnificent slab of beautiful Iron Bark, polished with a raw timber edge.

To cater for patron needs, we undertook renovations to divide areas of the wine bar off into individual areas for functions, private meetings and gatherings and have been able to achieve this with bi folding and glass doors. One of the rooms has been made as a quiet private function room, and in here, we have the original Stringy Bark floorboards, which have been beautifully preserved.

The owners have worked with a talented team of builders and individual workers on the restoration planning and design. The renovation has involved a great deal of specialised carpentry and sourcing of special native timber materials, design integration and communication to ensure that we blended the new with the old in a way that complemented the old building and the community which it serves.