Lorri Wilde has never been one to drink a beer, but she has poured plenty in her time.
To step into the old Kerry Bridge Hotel – Mrs Wilde’s home from 1970 until last year – is to enter a time capsule of a bygone era.
Mrs Wilde, who this year turns 91, has kept the bar looking as it was when last drinks (albeit cuppas) were poured in the 1980s, but you will not find any actual alcohol or cigarettes on the premises.
The pub first opened in the early 1900s and went through many licensees until it eventually operated as a cafe called ‘The Pub with no Beer’ for a few years from 1982.
From the mid-80s, it was purely home to Mrs Wilde and husband Dave.
Now, the iconic pub is going on the market through local agents Bartholomew and Co.
Mrs Wilde and her first husband Noel Schipkey started running the Kerry Bridge Hotel in 1970.
At the time a group of wealthy investors from Sydney owned it and transferred its freehold license to the Kuraby Hotel in 1974.
But that is not when the beers stopped flowing.
While Mrs Wilde went off to her job at Beaudesert Bowls Club (where she worked for 23 years) an unlicensed operation continued out of the old hotel.
“We had the skydivers here, with the police’s blessing I might add, because it was all different in those days,” she said.
“They didn’t want a whole heap of skydivers landing in Beaudesert at the weekend and drinking and picking up the girls that belonged to guys in Beaudesert and all this business. Our rules were we were only allowed to let the skydivers in and the Kerry locals too.”
Eventually the licensing commission caught wind of it and in the late 70s they were shut down.
If walls could talk
The Kerry Bridge Hotel houses many tales.
In February 1937, the hotel was a gathering place for people helping with search efforts after the famous Stinson crash.
Mrs Wilde operated Kerry Telephone Exchange 24/7 out of the pub for a time and the old switch is still there.
An elderly lady from further along Kerry Road, Margaret ‘Cissy’ Korsch, even ended up living at the pub for 14 years after she stopped in for a few days to shelter from a storm.
Mrs Wilde reflected on the upcoming sale.
“I probably miss it, miss some of the people, but I’m just in Beaudesert now,” she said.
