QHA_August-2021-Digital

THE ROYALS
Proud owners of the Royal Hotel Leyburn, Shane and Sam
Toy know a thing or two about the history of their town
thanks to the information and photos provided by pub
stalwart Tex McGee and some other Leyburn locals.
One of the truly unique things about country hotels is
the yarns on offer from the local patrons, the more
exaggeration involved the better.
One yarn that doesn’t need any embellishment, is
Royal Hotel Leyburn’s very own brush with royalty –
Queensland sporting royalty that is.
The pub was previously owned by Australian former
professional rugby league footballer Shane Webcke.
Shane explained “when we bought the hotel, it had a
lot of previous work completed. It was very tastefully
renovated. But it’s still certainly got it’s old charm. We
purchased the hotel from Shane Webcke, the former rugby
league champion. He owned it for 15 years and put a lot of
money and time into it, due to the fact that he grew up in Leyburn,
so it has always been a labour of love for him”.
Shane made the leap to the other side of the bar seven years
ago and has enjoyed the adventure so far. With his wife and
children by his side, this family-run business is a change of
pace for the former chippy.
“It’s a lot of work like all of them, but it’s good, the
hours are flexible in some ways if you can manage
your staff right, but we really enjoy owning a
country pub”.
Located about one hour south of Toowoomba
and once larger in population than
Toowoomba and Warwick, the town of
Leyburn was a thriving community during
the gold rush era and was one of the
oyals
more successful goldfields on the
Darling Downs.