ANDREW MOLE finds a Tassie pub that doesn't embrace all things mole
For obvious reasons, this is a story I just had to do.
But, oh, what a gut-wrenching disappointment it proved to be.
My excitement had been building on the drive into Mole Creek, south of Devonport, in Tasmania.
All those signs featuring the cutest little moles, beaming from billboards, drawing me in.
So my heart was fairly palpitating by the time I threw open the door to the Mole Creek Hotel.
Only to be surrounded by Tasmanian Tigers - big, bigger and bloody huge.
And ne'r a mole in sight. What the hell was going on?
Even the main bar was named the Tassie Tiger Bar. Good grief.
And there was a Tassie Tiger gift shop attached to the hotel, with scant reference to its mole history.
Jovial hosts Doug Westbrook and his wife, Ramona, were more than happy to provide the answers, not seeing past my professional veneer to my internal torment.
This was to be the personal highlight, even triumph, of my Tassie tour and instead I had been buried under an avalanche of tiger trivia.
Not that the Westbrooks cared. They have been at the helm of the hotel for the past two and a half years and spent much of that time reviving the tiger legend.
Legend? Nay, nay, said the Westbrooks. Along with a chorus of support from the local yokels in the front bar.
As far as they are concerned the legendary thylacine has not been hunted out of existence, it is alive and well and seen on a regular basis.
"The last sighting was only a month ago," Doug said.
"Here, look at this," he enthused, proudly producing a caste of an animal footprint which he assured me was a tiger.
"Agreed, there aren't a lot of them, but they are out there."
Ramona is also a believer, having seen one crossing a road.
It is also why the couple recently opened the gift store with its tiger theme.
Doug said tourists come from all over the world just to soak up the tiger ambience.
Poor benighted fools.
Mind you, if you think the emphasis is all backwards, it probably stems back to when the Mole Creek Hotel was first built.
Doug said the genius behind the plan could see a big future for a pub in this captivating corner of the island state, with its rail connections, its caves and its spectacular settings.
"It was built in 1907-08 but once it was up and ready to go it was discovered the man who had sold them the land had placed a caveat on the sale - no building could have anything to do with alcohol," Doug said.
"So not only was it a pub with no beer, it was a pub without even a licence.
"The compromise was it opened as a boarding house - the Mountain View guest house - and it took 45 years and a lot of legal fees to get the caveat lifted.
"Finally, though, in 1953 the Mole Creek Hotel was open for business and serving its first drinks."
Since the Westbrooks arrived they have pumped some real life into the pub, including the staging of the Mole Creek Cup, to complement that lesser-known Victorian race, the Melbourne Cup.
So in the end I bought a souvenir T-shirt.
Of course it had a bloody tiger on it, but also said Mole Creek Hotel in smaller print.
I packed it, with my dignity, in the boot of the car and headed east.
And if I had seen a tiger on the road I would have run it over.
