A Bendigo family's caravan trip up the east coast of Australia has given rise to a project that aims to support and celebrate country pubs.
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On their trip up to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back, the Pannett family - Troy, Brooke, Cooper, 10 and Harper, nine - have enjoyed stopping for meals at local pubs along the way.
This year, however, has been a tough one for the hospitality industry: many pubs have first been affected by the fires, and the COVID-19 pandemic then delivered another huge blow.
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Mr Pannett said the trip and the challenges pubs had faced this year sparked the idea to create a platform called Pubmate, where pubs across the country could promote themselves.
"Australia's got a really good pub culture, we want to do our bit to keep that alive," Mr Pannett said.
He said they were working an app on which pubs could upload information about their specials, events and the like, for a small fee to cover the development cost.
Meanwhile, customers will be able to use the app for free to discover pubs near them, wherever they are.
It is hoped Pubmate will be especially useful for travellers.
Unless you were a local or happened to see some advertising, Mr Pannett said, it was difficult as a customer to find what was available at pubs in your vicinity.
He said they aimed to keep the cost of the app for publicans as low as possible, and ensure it was easy-to-use for customers to encourage them to continue coming back to it.
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The goal, he said, was to "basically be the Google of pubs".
Mr Pannett said he loved the atmosphere, the friendliness and the history of pubs - and, of course, the food.
Until the app is up and running, Pubmate is promoting venues and their specials through its Facebook page, kicking off with a slew of posts about pubs in the Bendigo area.
Publicans can also get in touch with Pubmate through the page.