The Surveyor General Inn was built in 1834 for James Harper, using convict labour, and licensed as an inn in the following year.
Remaining in the Harper family for almost one hundred years, The Surveyor General is the oldest continuously licensed inn in Australia.
The main building, constructed of local convict-hewn sandstone and sandstock bricks, has served as both a pub and accommodation for over a century and a half.
The original taproom is still the main bar, with stone walls, timber and pressed metal ceilings, open fireplace for cool evenings, and 80 year old carved cedar bar.
There are 6 beers on tap (including Guiness), spirits and wines, counter lunches and snacks, and espresso coffee.
On weekends especially the bar is a hive of activity, and customers can be found enjoying their drinks at tables on the verandah.
Or you might like to relax in the beer garden ( a real beer garden, on the lawn, under the trees!), where a band can often be found playing on Sundays.
There is also a band most Friday and Saturday evenings from 8.00 p.m. to midnight, when the Surveyor General becomes the favourite place to wind down at the end of the week.
The most important addition made by the current owners to this famous hotel is the new extension housing the Bushranger Bistro.
This beautiful building, blending sympathetically with the historic inn, houses the traditional barbecue area, a new Bistro with a la carte menu, and seating for up to 160 people in a family environment.
