The Oasis Hotel Tamworth: New owners give iconic hotel a new lease of life with extensive refurbishments

The Oasis Hotel has reopened to the public after a long period with its doors shut, and licensee Cassie Dorrstein is excited for the future with a new cafe and outdoor dining to bring the venue to life.

"We've completely refurbished the front accommodation and we've turned the old bottle shop into a cafe," she told the Leader.

"We had a fair bit of work to do, there was a lot of termite damage in the pub itself so we had to do a lot of work to that before we could reopen.

"We had to pull the whole bar out to replace the floor underneath because of the damage, and we've basically refurbished everything and given it a real modern but rustic feel."

Last year, Joyce and Des Gilfillan handed over the keys to the new owners, after more than 26 years running the business.

A combination of lockdowns and renovations meant the hotel hadn't seen much foot traffic, but since reopening the feedback has been "excellent".

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"We've had really good support from a lot of Tamworth locals and I think it's just getting the name back out there," Ms Dorrstein said.

"Our backyard area we've only just reopened because we had a fair bit of damage out there as well, to promote outdoor dining as well such as picnic, outdoor entertainment.

"There's such a nice big space out there that had gone to waste before, so now we've revamped all that and turned it into something pretty amazing outside."

The family-run business hopes to have renovations complete in time for January's Country Music Festival.

"We're renovating the back rooms now, we've just done it one step at a time. We're very excited, they're almost finished so we'll be on track for country music I think," she said.

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