From the moment Phil and Jenny Baker bought the Boree Creek Hotel, they knew they would be there for no more than five years.
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But neither could have known hitting the deadline would mean selling their now-famous watering hole at the height of a pandemic.
"When we started, it was just a pub," Mr Baker said.
"Now people come in and they say 'oh the famous Boree Creek Hotel', so you know you're doing something good when you get called 'famous'."
Gathering restrictions earlier in the year have already thwarted the couple's plans when the hotel auction had to be cancelled in May.
Now, the Bakers are changing tact and re-listing their hotel in the hopes of attracting private bidders.
"It's hard to say if we're confident about selling after COVID stuffed the auction," Mr Baker said.
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"It's the only [pub] in the district running all day, doing meals and with motel rooms, so it will sell."
This year has not been the send off the Bakers had hoped for when they first signed the deed for the hotel in 2015.
Due to the lockdown restrictions, earlier this year the hotel was forced to shut.
But thankfully, it was only a few days before it re-opened with an array of fresh take-away menu items that continued for the next three months.
"Our tapped kegs, we put into growlers and sold that way," Mr Baker said.
"On Tuesday nights we started doing pizzas, we made 40-plus pizzas and they just took off."
In fact, with their new menu, Mr Baker said the COVID-19 period contributed to their busiest time leaving the couple "cooking from daylight to dust."
In the past five years, Mr Baker estimates they have had about six days off from the hotel between themselves.
"We always intended it to be just five years and then we'll retire," Mr Baker said.
"We've been working our butt off because it's a 24/7 place."
Consequently, they are now very much looking forward to their new lives on the other side of retirement.
"We've got a house in Urana that we need to get in order, we'll get out into the veggie patch and kickback," Mr Baker said.
"Then we'll take the caravan out and take off for a week at a time. No hurry, nowhere to be."