FEES on liquor licences and an increasing number of small venues in Orange could create a changing of the guard for Orange’s drinking culture.
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Liquor licence charges on late-night trading come into force next month, which has led to the Great Western and Victoria hotels applying to surrender their late-night trading hours.
Both are approved to trade until 3am, however The Great Western has applied to reduce it to midnight, while the Victoria will close at 1.30am.
Until now, businesses have paid a one-off application fee for liquor licences but from April it will become annual, and venues who trade until 3am will have to pay an additional $5000 on top of a base rate, or $2500 if they trade until 1.30am.
Great Western Hotel licensee Trevor Lawry said it made no sense to continue late-night trading.
“We close at midnight, so it won’t affect trade, but it might affect the [hotel’s] resale value,” he said.
Victoria Hotel licensee Norm Foley said the hotel did use its late trading hours, closing at 1.30am, but the loading added a lot more money to the price of trading.
“When the government brings these things in, you have to comply,” he said.
However, two of Orange’s cafe ventures have set their sights on serving liquor from their premises.
Nimrod Nagi of Nimrod’s said he would apply for a liquor licence, basing his idea on the growing boutique bar culture in Sydney’s Surry Hills.
“The advantage is I can see every single client from where I’m serving alcohol,” he said.
Meanwhile, Byng Street Cafe’s Jeremy Norris said his business already had a liquor licence, but it only covered part of the building and he hoped to extend it.
“There’s not enough places to go and we need to change it a bit,” he said.
Ferment has an application pending with the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing to extend its licence to allow it to sell wine from outside Orange and Mudgee.
Orange Liquor Accord president Bill Kelly said Orange venues had a decision to make on late trading hours because once they were surrendered, they might not be able to be recovered.
He said Orange was well served by its existing venues.
“[Adding more], it’s just spreading the existing market thinner between operators, and the number of venues for sale is an indication things aren’t as good as they possible could be,” he said.
danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au
