Locals pool money together to buy the Dingee Railway Hotel

The Dingee Railway Hotel closed its doors in November last year as the COVID-19 pandemic made the pub's operation unviable for the owners.

It was put up for sale shortly after.

The pub is preparing to re-open after a group of determined Dingee residents decided the town simply needed the venue to maintain a sense of community.

Elesha Giudice is one of the two women chosen to run the pub on the community's behalf, and they are on the look-out for staff.

Ms Giudice said there wasn't a great deal of places in Dingee where people could gather and relax, so it was important to have the pub back.

"It's a community hub," she said.

"It's exciting for the community to have it back open.

"They recognise the need for it out here because it is somewhere where everyone meets."

She said the pub was a regular spot for local cricket sporting clubs who would meet after training and enjoy pizzas and drinks.

Ms Giudice said the town had been really quiet since the pub had closed.

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"It's been missed, I do think. By a lot of people," she said.

Ms Giudice, who had been working locally, gave up her job to come and work in the pub.

"We want to make it work for the community," she said.

When word of a proposal to buy and re-start the hotel spread around the district, friends and locals showed up to the first meeting to show their support.

Jon Lowther lives within walking distance of the pub.

"We bought in Dingee because of the pub here. It was a great little pub," he said.

"We were sad to see it closed and we're very very happy to see it open again."

Mr Lowther said he was most looking forward to catching up with the locals he'd become friends with - including Ms Giudice and her husband.

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"We met all the locals here," he said.

Dingee local and real estate agent Matt Bowles helped facilitate the purchase of the pub between the owners and the locals.

"I grew up in Dingee - on a dairy farm not too far from here - and I've frequented and used the the pub itself," Mr Bowles said.

"I spoke to the owners of the pub and said it's probably a chance for the local community to buy it.

"A couple of locals have sort of approached me to say 'well, why don't we try to put that together?'"

Mr Bowles said 20 shareholders had bought into the hotel.

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"You can see by the town itself, without a pub there's not much here," he said.

"It's a good central hub and meeting place for everyone to meet and use."

Mr Bowles said the response from the community was positive.

"The good thing about it, as I said, most of the people live really close to the community and some other people who have put money in have actually grown up here as well," he said.

"My brother's involved in it - he lives in Coffs Harbour - but he was happy enough to put money into it to keep the place going."

While historical details of the Railway Hotel are sketchy, it is believed the original building on the site it now occupies was the first hotel building in the area - the Hope Plains Hotel.

That hotel was built in Wight's paddock east of Dingee. It was shifted to its present site in 1883 when the railway was constructed and renamed, appropriately enough, the Dingee Railway Hotel.

At one stage, it was claimed hotel housed 23 rooms and up to 12 boarders at a time.

It was rebuilt circa 1913 and in 1975-76, the hotel was extensively renovated.

The pub is considered historically significant as the principal meeting place and hotel in the Dingee township since the arrival of the railway on June 21, 1883.

Now 139 years later, it will soon be the principal meeting place once again for a Dingee community who refused to let their pub die.

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