HE'S been working in Orange as the area manager for the IMG Hotels Group for about 18 months, but now, Rowen Cleal has a new gig.
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"Now I'm firmly the face of the Dudley," Mr Cleal said.
Mr Cleal, who has lived in Orange for the majority of his life, will be making the move to Bathurst, along with his wife and two children, as he has taken over the role as publican of the hotel, which is owned by IMG.
And with his new role, he has grand plans to provide the Dudley along Stewart Street, Bathurst, with a fresh facelift.
"Big plans for the pub actually, starting next year," he said.
These plans include renovating the upstairs accommodation, opening the bar area to connect more directly to the bistro, moving the bottle-o, increasing car parking, and adding to the already-established children's play equipment.
"We're still in the paperwork phase at the moment, but we're looking to invest a lot in the capital side of the pub, and essentially build a brand new pub," Mr Cleal said.
Though the bistro and gaming areas will remain relatively similar to how they are now, patrons can expect all other aspects of the pub to undergo major changes.
"Essentially the rest of the shop; the bottle shop, the front bar, and beyond, and car parking and stuff like that, will all get a fresh look," Mr Cleal said.
The goal is to ensure that the Hotel Dudley transforms into one whole entity, not disjointed fractions.
This will be done by knocking walls out between the two main areas of the pub.
"I want to open everything up, so we become one venue," he said.
"At the moment, we've got two separate worlds, with this sort of more modern bistro, and then you go out to the front bar, and it's a really old school, public bar vibe.
"We're merging the two together, and that's really what I want to bring in, that merging of the two sides, to really make it one venue."
What's first on the list?
But, the first job to tick off the long to-do list, is relocating the hotel's drive-through bottle shop.
The plan is to move it from Durham Street, to Stewart Street, so that it's more accessible to travellers along the highway.
From there, Mr Cleal hopes to start work on increasing the current car parking capacity.
Now, there are about 20 parking spaces at the hotel.
"We're looking to more than triple that, just to really have that family access," Mr Cleal said.
This family focus will also be increased with adding to, and improving the children's play equipment, before refurbishing the inside of the hotel.
The final stages
Last on the list of priorities, according to Mr Cleal, is the accommodation.
Currently, it is closed to the public, and it will remain that way until renovations are completed.
"Essentially, until I can get it renovated, because it's very old and very run down, and that's not what we want to represent as a hotel," he said.
"So, once I'm able to renovate those, and if we do decide to renovate, we'll open it up to the public."
And though things are still only in the planning phases, Mr Cleal has high hopes that work on the hotel will kick off in mid to late 2026.
As for the completion of the projects?
"In an ideal world, in two years' time I'd like to sit down again and say 'this is our brand new venue'," he said.
Until then, however, Mr Cleal said he was just excited to get to know the Bathurst community.
He said he would encourage everybody to come in and say G'Day, and to let him know if there are any aspects of the pub they wish to see changed, and to highlight things they wish to stay.
But as for the transformation of the Dudley, Mr Cleal said he "just can't wait".
