After eight years running the heritage Bredbo Inn, Raquel and Mathew Thomas are ready to take a step back.
"We've poured our hearts into this place, but we're tired and ready for a new chapter," Ms Thomas said.
The couple are moving to the Illawarra region to spend more time with the family despite making "so many unforgettable memories at the inn".
"With four children and four grandkids now waiting for us, the travel back and forth means it's time for someone else to step in and take this venue to its next level," Ms Thomas said.
Built in 1836, the inn is located at 1 Monaro Highway, an hour away from Canberra and just 25 minutes out of Cooma - the perfect rest stop for Canberrans and Sydneysiders on their way to the snow.
"It's the absolute first stop going to the snow without having to turn off the main drag, and there are no other pubs around to compete with us," Ms Thomas said.
Throughout the year, the inn is known for yabby races, giant pumpkin competitions, truck and machinery shows and a New Year's Eve party which has drawn up to 5000 customers, according to Ray White, which is selling the property.
For the first four years of their tenure, the Thomases were the local wife-carrying champions, until Mr Thomas "got a bit older and couldn't move quite as fast", Ms Thomas said.
"It's that kind of fun, tight-knit community energy that makes this place so special," she said.
The inn is rumoured to have been a favourite of poet Banjo Paterson, and the place where the horseman who inspired The Man From Snowy River died.
The legend among locals says Paterson told the publican he had based the rider on Charlie McKeahnie, who died at the inn after falling from his horse.
The identity of the Man from Snowy River is debated, but Mr McKeahnie was generally believed to be the hero of another bush ballad called On the Range by Barcroft Boake.
The inn is also home to a memorial for the three American pilots who died when their waterbombing plane crashed while fighting the 2019-20 bushfires.
"We also take immense pride in the bushfire memorial we created," Ms Thomas said.
"The families of the American victims want to come out, see the area, and witness what the community has done to honour them. It's deeply meaningful to everyone who steps foot here."
Ray White Rural Yass director Simon Southwell will take the inn to auction on Friday, July 17. The price guide is set at about $1.8 million.
The property is 8,500 square metres and includes the pub, a restaurant, bottleshop, and TAB facilities.
Accommodation on the site includes eight motel rooms and a caravan park. According to Ray White, the park can host between 30 and 40 caravans on a busy night.
A development application has already been approved to build five more cabins on the site, as well as a new shed which could be used for a ski-hire business, mechanical workshop or factory space.
