Community & Business
2 February, 2022
New owners takeover Oakey’s The Grand Hotel
Meet the new owners of Oakey’s The Grand Hotel, Darren and Kim Fleming.
Darren and Kim have taken over The Grand Hotel and are excited to transition from the hustle and bustle of city life in Brisbane, to life in a small country town.
“I’ve always wanted to live in a country town and I’ve always wanted to have a crack at hotels,” Darren said.
“So as soon as our kids graduated from university, we decided that this is what we want to do,” he said.
“I don’t know if we have done the right thing yet, but we’ll find out in a couple of years!”
Before buying the hotel, the couple owned a few coffee businesses but are excited to take on this new venture.
Darren has plans to make some minor improvements to the hotel, perhaps paint the building and fix up the courtyard.
“We are just going to keep it the same for a while,” Kim said.
“We want to continue on both the legacy of John and the pub, considering how long it has been in the area”, she said.
Darren said the hotel, which is an historic building over 100 hundred years old, is the original structure and has been well-maintained over the years by past owners.
Before Darren and Kim moved to Brisbane they lived in Nanango and Bundaberg.
However, they miss the friendliness of country people and they say Oakey is a pleasant change from Brisbane.
“The people here have said, ‘if you want a hand with anything Kim just let us know’, and there’s been no trouble at all,” Kim said.
“The people all know who you are and say hello when walking down the street,” she said.
“Which they don’t do that in Brisbane, even though we were there for twenty years.”
They are both eager to become more involved in the community, with Darren voicing his desire to get involved with the Oakey Bears.
