Pinky the pig, Pub in the Paddock at Pyengana, Tasmania, listed

Pinky the pig, Pub in the Paddock at Pyengana, Tasmania, listed
Jonathan ChancellorAugust 19, 2012

Pub in the Paddock, billed as one of Tasmania's tourism icons, has been listed for sale with an $800,000 asking price.

Set in the valley of Pyengana, and close to the St Columba Falls, licensee Anne Free's pub is renowned for its beer-drinking pigs.

Visitors flock to visit the pub and give the pigs a stubby to drink.

"This property is perfect for the owner operator, offering a life style that most can only dream of," its LJ Hooker St Helens listing agent Nereda Ball says.

"It has owner's accommodation with beautiful views to the river and surrounding landscape."

It's been reported Pinky the pig is included in the sale.

The St Columba Falls Road hotel was built in 1880 and continually licensed since 1901.

There are six country-style guest rooms at around $75 a night.

There is also a restaurant with seating for up to 100.

There is a commercial kitchen.

It's on three hectares that back onto South George River.

The pub hit national headlines in 2006 when animal liberationists suggested the pigs were being forced into a cruel and unnatural existence.

But the pub's owners say it's just good fun, and that the pigs are also enjoying themselves when tourists pour a stubby down the their throats. 

At the time Anne Free said the pigs were well looked after with the beers watered-down posing no threat to her stars – Pinky, long-time beer drinker Priscilla and her young understudy, PB.

"I mean, I monitor what goes out to those pigs," she told ABC Radio.

"If a bus comes in I will only allow four stubbies to the whole bus of 55, and the stubbies, the bin that sits there is a whole week's bin.

"And of course these people say, 'Oh gee, look at all that, she's had all that, no wonder she's lying down.'

"And I get quite irate if people come in and say, 'Oh, is the pig inebriated.'

"You know, there's no way that these pigs would be mistreated like that," she said in 2006.

Free is off to her southern Tasmanian cherry farm. 

The beer-guzzling pigs helped the Pub in the Paddock at Pyengana make the a new publication Great Australian Pubs by Lee Mylne.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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